


Potion Fumes and Cauldron Leaks

by usignolo



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cross-Generation Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Love, Meddling Dumbledore, Romance, Secret Relationship, Sexual Content, Teacher-Student Relationship, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-13
Updated: 2018-05-01
Packaged: 2018-07-23 18:49:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 26
Words: 56,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7475769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/usignolo/pseuds/usignolo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Dumbledore decides to bring back the centuries-old Hogwarts tradition of assigning apprentices to the school's professors, Severus Snape finds himself confronted with having a certain know-it-all invade his beloved Potions lab. To his own dismay, however, the Dungeon Bat soon encounters some never before seen feelings bubbling in the cauldron that is his heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Strenuous Return

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer: I don’t own the “Harry Potter” book series. The story of “Harry Potter” is the property of J. K. Rowling, it is not my intellectual property. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.**
> 
> Severus Snape has always been my favourite “Harry Potter” character and since I’m quite fond of Hermione as well, I really enjoy reading stories about the two. As I had a few ideas for fanfics, I have decided to make one of them into a story. For the sake of the plot, some things have been changed compared to the original timeline. In my story’s universe, Voldemort was defeated sometime before the trio’s final year and they never dropped out of school to hunt for horcruxes. How all of this happened is not really relevant. A lot of characters who died in the books are also still alive, the most obvious being Snape himself. There may be some other changes as well.
> 
> I would also like to note that while I am fluent in English it is not my native language so please excuse any mistakes.

King’s Cross railway station was as busy as always on this late Monday morning.

It was noisy and packed as business men in overpriced suits, teenagers skipping their first day of school and backpacking tourists alike were making their way to and from the different platforms. Unintelligible announcements about delayed and cancelled trains were drowned out by the inextinguishable babel of voices and sounds. Strutting towards the station’s exit, a group of dressed up suburban moms were on their way to their weekly shopping spree, chatting loudly and pushing overly expensive strollers while at the same time ignoring their crying offspring. They passed by a group of foreign travellers who were trying to decipher an obsolete folding map. On the other side of the hall, a rather sloppy-looking worker was grumpily cleaning up what seemed to be a spilled strawberry-banana milkshake from the small coffee shop nearby.

In short, no one was paying enough attention to their surroundings to notice a young petite woman rushing her way through the giant crowd.

Her long brown locks were sticking out in every possible direction as she was moving quickly through the large entrance hall, a small beaded bag in one hand and an old wicker cat carrier in the other. Unfortunately, her furry passenger didn’t seem too happy about the bumpy ride and tried to take out his frustration by snatching at any unsuspecting stranger passing by. 

Her elegant brown leather boots clacking loudly, she was running across the hard stone floor. Her loose cherry red dress, which she had combined with a light blue jeans jacket, was swirling around her pale legs as the girl was stumbling down a broad flight of stairs towards the platforms nine and ten. She bumped into several people, who complained indignantly, but didn’t have the time to stop and apologise. She continued to fight her way through the cluster of stressed passengers, running exactly towards a brick wall separating the platforms. Clenching her two pieces of luggage, she took a deep breath and ran right against it.

But instead of making the expected painful contact, she went right through the sturdy wall. On the other side, a hidden platform filled with a massive crowd composed of odd-looking people came into sight. The young woman stopped dead in her tracks and took time to admire the old train with the beautiful scarlet engine, which was already surrounded by opaque white steam. Oh, how she had missed this sight!

Biting her chapped lips nervously, her look darted to the big round clock over-looking the track: 10.59. The female tensed up for a split second just to abruptly start running again. She yet again battled her way through the crowd, storming towards the vintage train.

She had just jumped on the train when the clock chimed and the door shut behind her. The brunette almost lost her footing as the infamous Hogwarts Express pulled out of its secret station.

Her face was flaming red and her chest was aching relentlessly. Breathing heavily, she made her way through the narrow aisle. Her feline friend’s carrier, which still had rather big ginger paws protruding from its inside, felt painfully heavy in her right hand. She was aware of the strange looks that were given to her by the other passengers on the train but she pretended not to notice. She had learnt long ago not to let these kinds of things get to her and therefore chose to elegantly ignore the clearly audible chatter and the countless eyes following her every move as she marched through the venerable corridor.

Leisurely, she walked by the see-through partition walls, checking every compartment in the process. Having almost reached the back of the train, she finally found the little booth she was looking for.

Sliding the glass door open, she earned herself startled looks from the adolescents inside. To her right was the famous lanky boy with the pitch-black hair, the round wire glasses and the clearly noticeable scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead. His arm was wrapped around the shoulders of a girl with long red hair and some faint freckles on her nose. Next to the pair sat a boy with the same vibrant ginger hair, his mouth stuffed with chocolate and his seat covered in candy wrappers. On the other side of the compartment, only two of the three velvet seats were taken. One was occupied by a somewhat chubby boy with a brown head of hair struggling to hold onto a soggy toad and the other by a pale blonde with big silvery-grey eyes wearing an interesting assortment of mismatched clothes.

It was this girl with the characteristic dreamy look on her face who exclaimed in a husky voice, “There you are, Hermione! We’ve been waiting for you.”

Hermione Jean Granger smiled brightly at her friends. It felt so good to finally come back home again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading the opening chapter of my very first story, I hope you enjoyed it!
> 
> I have been working on this story for a really long time, both in writing and researching. The next few chapters are already finished and will be uploaded in the next few days. I reckon that this story will be quite long as I am planning on making their romance progress over the entire school year and I do like to write elaborately. I do have an account under the same name (usignolo) on fanfiction.net as well, but I will only upload on here for now.
> 
> Please point out any mistakes you may find in the story! I would be happy about any other type of feedback as well.


	2. An Unpleasant Surprise

Severus Snape snorted in disgust as he was making his way through the cold, dark dungeons he was so familiar with. He had left the Start-of-Term Feast as soon as possible. The Potion Master had never been fond of this, in his opinion, redundant tradition, but the headmaster deemed it necessary for all core staff members to attend the festivity.

As always, Severus had been disappointed by the new first year students. “Just another bunch of prepubescent troublemakers without appreciation for knowledge and not an ounce of respect for authority,” he thought grimly. He was going to take great pleasure in showing them why everyone feared the greasy git of the dungeons. 

Finally reaching the bizarre painting of a seemingly maniac knight riding a famished donkey in a hidden corner of the desolate dungeons and ignoring its resident’s strident battle cry, the half-blood mumbled his password and entered his private quarters. Once inside, Severus removed his black robes, revealing an all-white dress shirt. The time since the war had ended had been good to him. While he was still covered in countless scars all over his body, he had gained some much-needed weight and was now filling his clothing out nicely. He had still not fully recovered from all he had had to endure, of course, but he was physically healthy at least. Unfortunately, regaining his physical health also meant his scary image had suffered some damage. “These useless brats will still show me the required respect, that I will ensure!” he grunted.

Severus was just opening the first of the many buttons on his shirt, longing for a cold shower after a long day, when he noticed the small roll of parchment tied to a tiny pouch placed on his much-loved reading chair. Frowning, he walked over and picked up the little package. The pouch was made out of vivid pink silk, embroidered with silver sequins. “That annoying old man!” Snape hissed. He gingerly separated the colourful bag from the parchment paper and opened it. Several pieces of Dumbledore’s favourite candy, sherbet lemon, fell to the floor, some rolling under the plum coloured chair.

The half-blood cursed under his breath as he grabbed the paper and unrolled it. The short note read:

_Severus,_  
_I would like to invite you to an important staff meeting taking place in the Great Hall before breakfast tomorrow. Even though this is on short notice, attending is obligatory. Surely, you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome of this little get-together._  
_Your friend Albus Dumbledore_  
_P.S. I do hope that you enjoy these delicious Muggle sweets as much as I do._

The black-haired man scowled. A surprise staff meeting was the last thing he needed right now. Crushing a few pieces of the yellow confectionery under his heavy black dress shoes, he finally headed to the bathroom, now craving a shower even more.

Later that night, as he was lying in bed, the wizard pondered over the headmaster’s invitation again. “Your friend Albus Dumbledore,” he whispered. No. The old man was wrong. Severus Snape didn’t have any friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another day, another chapter – thank you for reading!
> 
> As I am leaving for the weekend, the next chapter will probably be uploaded at the beginning of next week. I was working on the fifth chapter all night and I think I’m finally satisfied with how it turned out.
> 
> As always, I would greatly appreciate any feedback!


	3. Reviving Traditions

“I want to thank you all for coming here on such short notice.”

Severus watched from the shadows of an alcove as Dumbledore welcomed the gathered staff members to the meeting. Eight professors including himself were present as well as Madam Pomfrey. Talking to his colleagues while waiting for his employer to arrive, the Potion Master had found out that not every teacher had received an invitation and also that no one, not even those who had received one, knew what this meeting was actually about.

“Certainly all of you have been wondering about the nature of this gathering,” the headmaster said with a rather cheeky smile. “Well, I have decided that since we now have finally reached a period of peace again, I want to bring back a centuries-old Hogwarts’ tradition. A tradition that some of you that have been a part of this staff for a long time may still remember.”

Severus raised an eyebrow. What crazy thing did the old nutter come up with now?

Noticing the professors' confused looks, Dumbledore carried on, “This tradition was a significant part of this school’s educational history for hundreds of years. But unfortunately, it had to come to an end during one of the darkest times of the First Wizarding War since the whole school had to focus its force on stopping Voldemort.” Madam Pomfrey and Professor Trelawney both slightly flinched at the sound of this name. 

Giving them a sympathetic look, the old wizard continued, “To cut it short, I have decided to bring back Hogwarts’ prestigious apprenticeship programme. This means that every single one of you here today will be assigned a student who is interested in your subject and wishes to further his or her knowledge in that area. The student is currently in his or her sixth or seventh year. You will accompany them for the rest of the school year and teach them more about your subject. This is going to take place at least twice a week during fixed hours, however, you may agree on more meetings. You will all receive your apprentice’s schedule at the end of this assembly. They may also aid you in teaching the first, second and third year students.”

The Dungeon Bat’s eyes grew big. He had obviously heard of the apprenticeships, just like anyone else who had read "Hogwarts: A History" thoroughly. He even vaguely remembered hearing about it taking place during his first year at this school. However, it must have been terminated not long after since it hadn’t existed anymore during his final years at Hogwarts.

Ignoring the astonishment of everyone present, Dumbledore proclaimed, “And I am delighted to announce that for the first time in the history of this school, an apprentice will be assigned to the Hospital Wing! Poppy, your apprentice will be the lovely Miss Abbott. As I have heard, she is interested in becoming a healer after taking her N.E.W.T.s and would love to aid you in taking care of our students.”

While the matron seemed excited and yet slightly perplexed about being the first healer to have been appointed an apprentice, Severus was still somewhat in a state of shock. There must have been a mistake. The Potion Master was well aware of his status as the least popular teacher in the entire school. Even his own Slytherins weren’t too fond of their Head of House, at least not enough to voluntarily become his apprentice and therefore being forced to spend even more time with the greasy git.

“Minerva, I think you will be pleased to hear that Miss Ginevra Weasley has applied to be trained by you. I think we are both well aware of her magical abilities. Especially in the field of hexes,” Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. Professor McGonagall herself seemed also quite pleased with her future trainee.

Severus carefully considered all of his Slytherins. In his opinion, not even Draco Malfoy would willingly become his apprentice.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore continued to assign students to the different teachers. “I don’t think it comes as a surprise that our dear Mr Longbottom wants to further his education in Herbology, Pomona. I am certain that the two of you will work together quite well. And I also think that you, Remus, will not be surprised to hear that Mr Potter has asked to be under your guidance.” The werewolf gave a slight smile while the Head of Hufflepuff had a broad grin on her chubby face, some pieces of food from last night's supper still stuck in her teeth.

The old wizard continued in this fashion, assigning the Ravenclaw Padma Patil to Professor Flitwick and her Gryffindor twin sister Parvati to Professor Sinistra, as Severus was still pondering over who could have possibly asked to be his apprentice. No Gryffindor, that was for sure. And Hufflepuffs, while being obedient, in general lacked the needed backbone to face him.

The wacky Divination professor nodded her head in agreement when Dumbledore declared, “I am sure that you have already foreseen who your apprentice will be, Sybill. Miss Brown seems to have a lot of potential as a seer.”

Not even Ravenclaws, known for their thirst for knowledge, would want further their education in the field of Potions if it meant being tutored by Slytherin's head snake. Severus was rummaging about in the deepest corners of his brain, but he simply couldn’t come up with the name of a student interested in his subject while also brave enough to apply for the position.

“And Hagrid, I am happy to say that a student has applied to be further instructed when it comes to your beloved magical creatures. Miss Lovegood seems delighted to help you take care of them.” The gamekeeper was shaking, close to tears and had to be held up by a clearly struggling Flitwick. The friendly giant was obviously shocked and overwhelmed to learn that a student was that interested in his subject.

“And last but certainly not least: Severus!” The Slytherin's head shot up, startled by the headmaster calling his name so suddenly. “Now don’t act all surprised, my boy. Someone has indeed asked to be your apprentice. After all, everyone here knows that Miss Granger never backs away from a challenge,” Dumbledore explained with a wink.

Granger! Of course, how could he have forgotten about the little know-it-all? Only she would be interested enough in this complex subject to sign up for a year of forced collaboration with a former Death Eater. Severus groaned. How was he supposed to make it through an entire school year with the irritating Gryffindor Princess as his apprentice?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I managed to squeeze in a quick update before having to leave, I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> I'm really excited for the upcoming chapters as the story will really start to progress from there. So keep a look out for that next week!


	4. Inconceivable Choices

Hermione woke up with a smile that day. It had been so nice to sleep in her big comfy dorm bed again. After years of fighting against the forces of evil, the young witch finally felt at peace and was looking forward to being able to focus solely on her education for her final school year. Sitting up, she took a look around her new room. After being appointed as this year’s Head Girl, she was moved from Gryffindor Tower to a smaller one from which she could overlook the Great Lake. Instead of having to share a room with several other girls, she now had her own suite composed of a cosy bedroom, a luxurious bathroom and a small but sufficient study. The coat of arms of Hogwarts was engraved into her enormous bed’s wooden headboard.

Hermione slipped out from underneath the warm covers and quickly put on her silky cream-coloured robe. After a quick look at her Muggle watch, which she had gotten from her parents as a birthday gift almost two years ago, she realised that she had woken up almost an hour earlier than usual. Not wanting to go back to bed, she decided instead to take a hot shower.

After washing her body and giving her messy curls a deep clean, the teenager used her wand, which was made of vine wood, to dry her hair and skin. Afterwards, she picked up a decently sized lime green toiletry bag with big purple dots. Hermione unzipped it to reveal an assortment of Muggle beauty products which she had collected during the summers spent at her parents’ home. Making use of the extra time, she fished out a thick moisturising body butter with a slight peach smell and applied it to her entire body. Next, she moved on to makeup and applied brown mascara, a bit of light pink blush as well as a tinted lip balm to give her face a fresh look. Continuing with her hair, she struggled with taming the wild locks but eventually managed to put them into a cute messy bun. After putting on her beloved uniform – of course making sure to add her new Head Girl badge – and even using a little magic to make it look completely impeccable, she applied some jasmine-scented perfume as the last final step. Grabbing her well-loved school bag stuffed with all sorts of books as usual, she then made her way to the first breakfast of her final year at Hogwarts.

“Morning, Hermione,” Ron munched just a few minutes later as he stuffed even more pork sausages into his large mouth.

The young witch smiled as she sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall next to her friends. While she had never been an admirer of Ronald Weasley’s table manners, she was in too good of a mood this morning to correct him. Instead, she gave him a friendly pad on the shoulder while greeting everyone else as well. As she was helping herself to some toast with scrambled eggs, Professor McGonagall was fulfilling her duties as Head of House by distributing the individual timetables to each Gryffindor student. Taking a small sip of pumpkin juice, Hermione took a look at hers and saw that it didn’t entail any surprises.

“Let’s see … Monday starts off with Charms and Potions, then History of Magic and DADA in the afternoon.” Her heart skipped a beat, however, when she noticed what her very first period of the year would be: She was scheduled to have an apprenticeship lesson with Professor Snape!

Her look darted to the outer end of the High Table and she instantly wished she had kept her head down. The Dungeon Bat’s dark eyes were staring at her with such intensity that she felt like he was looking right at her soul. His lips were pressed together so tightly that they were barely visibly. She had known that he wouldn’t be ecstatic about working so closely with her when she had signed up for the apprenticeship at the beginning of the summer holidays - but she surely hadn’t expected to get a look of complete and utter hatred from her teacher.

“Perhaps I should have gone with Professor Vector after all,” she thought anxiously. At that moment, the Potion Master stood up and abruptly turned around to leave the Great Hall, his long black robes whirling around his slim figure.

“Unbelievable! It’s the first day of school and that greasy git is already in a bad mood,” said Harry before eating another piece of fried bacon.

“Did you really expect anything else from him? He will always be an old wanker,” Ginny responded and ignored Hermione’s glare at her use of a curse word. “Anyways, what about your timetables? I’m starting off with a double period of Charms.”

“Harry and I have a free period. Not bad for the first day!” Ron laughed with his mouth still full.

The know-it-all frowned. “Ron, you should really take your education more seriously. This is your final year after all! You are aware of the fact that the N.E.W.T.s will be harder than any exam we’ve ever taken, right?” But the freckled boy only rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to his breakfast.

“I would also have a free period if it wasn’t for my apprenticeship,” stuttered Neville shyly. “I do not mind that, though. I enjoy taking care of the plants with Professor Sprout. What about you, Hermione? Did you also apply for an apprenticeship?”

Hermione gulped. She knew that her friends were not going to take the news of her working closely with their least favourite teacher lightly. “Well, Neville, I will indeed train under someone. As it happens, I am also starting next period,” she said, trying to avoid the inevitable. 

“Did anyone seriously think that Hermione wouldn’t sign up for the apprenticeship programme? It’s practically made for her! I bet she would work with every single professor if she could,” Ginny giggled. She turned to the smart girl who was like the big sister she never had. “So, which of them has the honour of teaching you? It’s Babbling, isn’t it?”

“Ancient Runes is truly a very interesting subject, but no, I didn’t choose _Professor_ Babbling to study under,” Hermione said while focusing her attention on the incoming morning owl post to avoid her friend’s curious look.

“Who is it then? Burbage? Vector? Oh, don’t tell me you chose Binns!” The group of teenagers collectively erupted into laughter.

The brunette sighed. “No, it’s not Professor Binns. As a matter of fact, I –“ She took a deep breath. “I have chosen to work with Professor Snape.”

“WHAT?!” Even though she expected his outcry, Hermione still flinched at Ron’s loud exclamation. Every single head in the Great Hall immediately turned to him. “You chose Snape? That old git?! Hermione, you can’t be serious!”

Harry also had a look of disbelieve on his face. “You do know that you will have to work with him for the entire school year? How could you do this to yourself? I know you’re interested in Potions but it’s still Snape, Hermione!”

“ _Professor_ Snape is not only a highly intelligent and excellent teacher –“ Hermione ignored the revolted looks on her peers’ faces. “He is also an extremely skilled Potion Master. In fact, he is one of the best in his field. Getting the chance to work with him is an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, one that I am not going to miss out on just because of your dislike of him as a person.”

Her best friend shook her ginger head of hair in disbelief. “Hermione, I know your thirst for knowledge is unquenchable, but I still think you shouldn’t have gone with the Dungeon Bat. You know that he will treat you poorly just because he has the power to do so! Haven’t you learnt anything in the six years you have had to endure his spleen?”

Hermione gave her a slight smile. “Ginny, I appreciate your concern but don’t worry. I know Professor Snape can be a bit of a handful, but I’m sure everything will work out just fine! He can’t be that bad, can he?” While saying this, however, she still had the image of Snape’s furious look in her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! I don’t know if I’m 100 % happy with how this turned out, but I still hope that you enjoyed!


	5. The Dungeon Bat's Wrath

Severus stormed into his classroom and slammed the door behind him shut with a loud bang. He was boiling inside.

“That brat!” he spat angrily. Just seeing the Gryffindor Princess enter the hall had forced him to make use of every single ounce of self-control obtained from years of living as the senile old man’s spy under the surveillance of the Dark Lord. He had wanted to jump up and grab her to try to shake some sense into her petty little mind.

Why on earth would she want to study under him?! Yes, it was true that she was one of the most gifted students in the entire history of Hogwarts and even he couldn’t deny that she had at least some amount of talent when it came to brewing potions. But no student in their right mind, not even Miss Know-It-All herself, would voluntarily spend two additional hours a week in the cold and dark dungeons to study one of the most unpopular subjects under the most hated Hogwarts professor in centuries. And he could certainly think of countless things he would rather spend his time on than being bombarded by her infinite questions. 

The Potion Master was pacing up and down. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that Granger’s application must have had some sort of hidden agenda behind it - she did belong to the circle of Potter and Weasley, after all. Those two idiots probably talked their prudent friend into signing up so that they could play some sort of practical joke on his expense or steal from his storage room again.

Oh yes, these nitwits might think that they’d gotten away with it, but Severus had noticed some of his bicorn horn and boomslang skin, ingredients for the infamous Polyjuice Potion, go missing nearly five years ago. The only reason they hadn’t gotten expelled that day was because he hadn’t had any distinct proof. And even if he’d had that, Dumbledore would have never punished them. The old man would have probably just smiled about their “little shenanigans” since The Boy Who Lived and his cult-like followers were simply too precious to experience any real life consequences. Damn that old fool! (Severus did have to admit, however, that it was quite impressive for a 13-year-old to be able to brew such an advanced potion. But he would never say that out loud, of course.)

The thought of his ungrateful students made the Dungeon Bat more irritated by the second. Well, two could play this game. If Granger wanted to be his apprentice, then he would not make it easy on her. He started to make a list in his head of strenuous and tedious tasks he would assign to her. He could send her into the icy cold waters of the Great Lake to gather squidgy flabberghasted leeches or into the Forbidden Forest to collect knotgrass. She would definitely regret her decision after he made her extract the mucus of the three stone flobberworm delivery he was going to receive next week. He even cracked a slight smile at the thought of having her stay up all night to harvest fluxweed which needs to be picked during full moon to bring the best results.

While the thought of the horrible errands planned for his new mentee had put him in a slightly better mood that quickly changed when his gaze settled on a slip of paper on his desk. It was his new apprentice’s schedule which he had received at the end of the staff meeting this morning. It instantly made him remember that his first lesson with the know-it-all was about to start.

A quick look at his old-fashioned black Muggle wristwatch, which he always kept well-hidden from his colleagues and students, told him that it was exactly 9 o’clock. At that very moment, there was a knock at the door. “Punctual as always,” Severus snarled. “Enter!”

The classroom entrance opened to reveal the petite figure of Hermione Granger. The Potions professor instantly noticed the Head Girl badge attached to the right side of her grey sweater. He grimaced as he remembered how smug his nemesis James Potter had acted after being appointed the prestigious position during their final year almost two decades ago.

“Good morning, Sir,” the witch said quietly. “Thank you for letting me study under you. I appreciate it greatly.”

Severus furrowed his brow, “It’s not like I had much of a choice, Miss Granger.”

He turned around and strutted towards his wooden desk. Sitting down in his big black leather chair, he indicated to the girl to come closer with his right hand. 

“Here is how this will work, Miss Granger,” he said, looking at her sternly. “I am not delighted by the headmaster’s idea of bringing back the apprenticeship programme, but there is nothing I can do about it. I can, however, decide how all of this will go down.” He noticed that the student couldn’t quite conceal the nervous expression on her face. 

“As my apprentice, I expect immaculacy from you. You are to come to every single one of our fixed hours as well as any other dates I may set. You are expected to both be on time and to work hard. You may be required to teach the younger students as my assistant. During those times, you are expected to act just like any other professor here at Hogwarts. As such you must demand respect and you will have the ability to award and deduct house point as well as hand out detentions to misbehaving students. These detentions will take place in my office, but I will require you to be present as well since you were the one who handed them out. As the assistant professor, you are responsible for the students’ safety and you must ensure that there will be no accidents whatsoever. In addition, I expect you to excel during regular Potions class as well as all of your other classes. I will not accept slacking of any kind from my protégée, even if said protégée was forced upon me.”

He saw her gulp as he continued, “I sincerely hope that you thought long and hard before applying to be my apprentice, Miss Granger, because I will not make this easy on you. The art of brewing potions is a particularly delicate craft, something that only few have a talent for and that I take extremely seriously. Now –“ he said, ignoring her clearly growing anxiety. “You may start right away. After our lesson, I will be teaching the Slytherin and Gryffindor students from the fourth year. To start of the new semester, they will have to repeat the material they have learnt over the past three years. You are to put together an assignment which tests their knowledge and requires them to identify at least two dozen and a half ingredients. They shall also have to descript each one’s effects when used both correctly and incorrectly. You may sit down here –“ he said, motioning to a desk in the front row. “And start.”

It took a few seconds before the girl realised that her professor’s speech was over. “Yes, sir,” she mumbled before sitting down at her assigned seat. The teacher had to admit that he was surprised that she only gave a brief answer instead of harassing him with her annoying questions as usual.

They both worked quietly. While the witch was preparing the examination for her fellow students, Severus was going over his lesson plans once again. He had arranged them all during the summer, of course, but there's always room for improvement. He was a perfectionist after all.

After about twenty minutes of silence only interrupted by the sound of quills moving over parchment paper, the brunette cleared her voice. “I hope you had a nice summer, Sir,” she declared shyly.

Severus was startled by her attempt at small talk. “Miss Granger, I assure you that there is no need for making conversation. Do not think that you’re in any sort of special position just because you happen to be my apprentice now.”

The young woman turned bright red. “No, no, that’s not what I meant, I, I –“ she stuttered hastily. “I didn’t -, it’s not … I apologise, Sir.” He saw a look of embarrassment on her face before she looked down again and continued working. He thought he could see her shaking a little.

“It’s her own fault,” he thought grimly. “As a professor, I can still demand some respect - even from a member of the idiotic trio!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a longer break I'm back with the next chapter, I hope you enjoyed!


	6. Early Advances In Between Dusty Phials

Even though she would have never admitted it to anyone, especially not to her friends or the Potion Master himself, Hermione started to regret being Snape’s apprentice relatively soon. After embarrassing herself so severely and barely being able to hold back her tears during their first lesson, it only went downhill from there.

Having to create the initial assignments for all classes (except for her own, of course) turned out to be the most pleasant task the black-haired professor had planned for her. After only a few weeks of working under Professor Snape, her back was already in constant pain from crouching over to finely mince hundreds upon hundreds of Alihotsy leaves, her hands were calloused from pestling the rocklike horns of Catalonian Fireballs and her eyes were reddened and constantly burning after spending hours over bubbling cauldrons while stirring various types of potions. Even though she had always loved the art of potion making and was actually thinking about a career in that field, she was questioning whether she should continue with the apprenticeship or not. To make matters worse, the Quidditch trials had started at the beginning of the second school week which meant that Ginny, Ron and Harry were too busy to spend a lot of time with her. And so after only a few days into her final year, the Head Girl already felt lonely and pathetic.

“I just don’t understand why he’s being so nasty to me,” Hermione thought grimly as she made her way from the light-flooded Advanced Arithmancy Studies class room on the castle’s first floor to the bitter cold depths of the dungeons. Earlier this morning, an owl had delivered a note written in the Greasy Bat’s small ornate handwriting to the window of her small suite. It had instructed her to come to his office at 10 a.m., despite the fact that that was her free period.

“I’ve never had these kinds of problems with any other professor! I mean, not to sound smug, but I am one of the best students Hogwarts has ever seen – and Head Girl on top of that! Every other teacher is at the point where they almost treat me as their equal, but Professor Snape doesn’t show me even an ounce of respect. Why does he have to be so mean and vicious? Unlike Harry, Ron and his ‘oh so precious’ Slytherins, I at least put some genuine effort into my work. And yet he still hates me for some reason!” The young witch furrowed her brow as her light steps echoed across the grey stone floor.

“And he is not even taking his job as my instructor seriously! How will hours of scrubbing stinky cauldrons and polishing the classroom’s desks help me in becoming better at brewing potions?”

Soon enough, she reached the heavy black door leading to the Potion Master’s office. Before she could knock, however, a disgruntled “Enter!” resounded from the room on the other side. Pushing the weighty wooden construct aside, she caught a first glimpse of the pale man’s moody expression. “Great,” she thought to herself. “It’s not even midday and he’s already in a sullen mood! Lucky me.”

“You’re late,” he snarled before she could even take a step into the room.

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“Late? But it’s only two past ten, Professor!” the girl said with a quick glance at her wristwatch. A look of surprised crossed Snape’s face for a millisecond before he was able to masked it. The petite Muggle device looked almost identical to the one he had on his wrist at this exact moment, they were both made of the same plain black leather. While most electrical devices did not work at Hogwarts, old-fashioned watches seemed primitive enough to not go haywire around all the magic. He himself had found out about that fact during his own years as a student, but he had been yet to encounter anyone else who also knew of that piece of information. He was genuinely caught off guard.

The Potion Master growled quietly. He was irritated with himself over this little surge of emotion. “Don’t be so foolish, Severus! Sooner or later some student who grew up in the Muggle world would have discovered this detail. That stupid brat isn’t special in any way,” he berated himself.

“I do believe my note said ten o’clock, not two past ten, Miss Granger.”

“Well, yes, but I had Advanced Arithmancy Studies until 10. Even though I left early, it still takes a few minutes to get from the first floor down to the dungeons, Sir.”

“Aren’t you a witch, Miss Granger? As such, being on time should be an easy task. I do seem to recall a time when you were able to attend several classes simultaneously. Yet you cannot arrive punctually to a simple meeting?”

The Potions professor saw his student open her mouth to fire back but he cut her off quickly. “Anyways, it is not my job to teach you basic manners. For your tardiness, I shall deduct 10 points from Gryffindor. Now that that’s settled, let’s move on to the actual reason of our little get-together.”

He saw her frown in frustration as he continued. “Yesterday, our _beloved_ gamekeeper decided to introduce the first-year Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students to a pack of Crups. Interesting creatures, I’ll admit, however, he seems to have forgotten to tell them about the beasts’ dislike for Muggles beforehand. Two Muggle-born Hufflepuff students, fraternal twins to be exact, wore hand-knitted scarves made by their mother. Irritated by the smell, the alpha male attacked the both of them. Thankfully, they didn’t obtain any severe injuries, but they are suffering from concussions and are still slipping in and out of consciousness. Madam Pomfrey has therefore asked me to prepare two bottles of Wideye Potion. As this is an urgent matter and the potion already takes a long time to brew as it is, I require your help to speed up the process.”

The brunette had a shocked expression on her face. “Two injured students? Why was I not informed of this immediately? As Head Girl, it is my duty to –“

Severus cut her off. “Lighten up, would you? I’m sure Madam Pomfrey had other things in mind while she was busy caring for those two students. Besides, it would have been unnecessary anyways. What would you have done, go to the infirmary and hold their little hands?”

The smart witch was visibly boiling inside but kept her mouth shut. He continued, “Now, I have asked Mr Filch to supervise the students I would have otherwise taught this period. Since they were given a written assignment and aren’t working on a potentially dangerous potion, he should be able to manage. However, this means that the classroom is occupied. I therefore have no other choice than to use my personal laboratory for this task.” He could see his apprentice’s hazel eyes light up immediately.

“Don’t get any foolish ideas, Miss Granger. This will be a one-time-only occurrence. As you will enter my private chambers, I will expect you to behave accordingly. You will not touch anything or move around freely unless permitted. You will also not mention the fact that you entered my rooms to _anyone_.” The wizard made a small pause before carrying on. “We will be using ingredients from my personal storage room, which you shall use sparingly. I will require your help for the first few steps after which the potion has to brew for several hours. Following this, I will perform the final steps on my own and then deliver the bottles myself after supper. Now, we shouldn’t waste any more time. Follow me.”

Standing up abruptly from his leather chair, he moved through the office door and made his way through the dungeon’s winding hallways. He soon made a turn and entered a small passageway (which Hermione had strangely never noticed before) hidden behind a statue of a famous wizard who lived during the 17th century. Reaching the unsightly painting leading to his quarters and ignoring the tedious knight as always, he quickly muttered his password, of course making sure to be quiet enough so that the young witch couldn’t hear it. When the frame swung to the side, the both of them entered and found themselves in the wizard’s sitting room.

He could see her look wander across the room and knew that she must have been taken aback by its appearance. Except for a small open-hearth fireplace and a black wooden door on each wall, every single inch of vertical space had been covered in battered book shelves which literally held thousands of literary pieces. Severus had always been a bookworm and while he had an impressive collection of wizarding books (some of which were rare one of a kind volumes), he also possessed a wide array of Muggle classics.

While he had always been a true Slytherin, the Head of House hadn’t found it necessary to decorate the entirety of his chambers in the according colours. Truth be told, there wasn’t a splatter of silver or emerald green in the entire room. The two huge wing chairs facing the fireplace were of a deep purple colour and the fuzzy rug on the floor in front of them was Oxford blue. The large mirror above the fire as well as the elegant chandelier lighting up the room with faint candle light were coated with yellow gold. Further back in the room, a navy blue sofa and a small table made of Makassar ebony stood next to an old-fashioned secretary loaded with dozens of pieces of parchment paper and some ink-smeared quills. 

Before the witch could take in anything else, Severus ushered her through one of the four doors in the room which led to the Potions Master’s pride and joy: his private Potions lab. Countless potion phials in all the colours of the rainbow garnished the otherwise cold room. Over the years, he’d equipped his lab with numerous appliances and tools from all over the world thus making it a laboratory even the most experienced potion brewers would give a finger for. He kept it immaculately clean, too, as dust and other forms of dirt could distort the ultimate result of a potion. No one, not even the headmaster himself, had ever set foot in this room. And now he was standing here with the know-it-all herself. He sighed internally.

“Alright, Miss Granger,” he finally said. “We should start immediately. I’m sure you’ve had the recipe memorised since I taught it to you during your second year.”

The young woman nodded. “While I will begin with crushing the snake fangs and the Standard Ingredient, I would like for you to heat up the Dried Billywig Stings in that cauldron over there. Remember, since the infirmary is in need of two bottles, you need to double the number of each component. You may take them from my storage room in the back, but do not take anything other than the required ingredients.”

For a while, they worked in silence. Severus was busy working with his antique mortar, which he had obtained during a journey to Bulgaria, and had almost forgotten about the presence of his student in the room. Once he finished and looked up, however, he had to gulp. Having taken off her long robes and grey jumper, Miss Granger was standing bent over the bubbling cauldron, which was almost half her size. The first few buttons of her white blouse had been opened and its sleeves were rolled up to her elbows. Due to the heat and steam coming from the cauldron, her brown locks were clinging onto her forehead and a few beads of sweat were rolling down from her pale face to her slender neck. She was biting her chapped lips in concentration.

The Dungeon Bat turned away quickly. It was the first time that he noticed that the brat he had taken a dislike to during the very first lesson he had taught her was not the same bushy-haired 11-year-old girl with the buck teeth anymore. Unbeknownst to him, she'd blossomed into an attractive young lady right in front of his eyes.

“Attractive?! She’s my student! I must have been lacking female company for a bit too long if I’m starting to have impure thoughts about the Golden Trio’s Hermione Granger herself,” he criticised himself angrily.

“Sir?” Alarmed, Severus turned around just to stare directly into the widened eyes of the Gryffindor Princess. “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you. It’s just that I’m finished with the Dried Billywig Stings and would now like to add the rest. If you’re finished, that is,” she said a bit out of breath. The wizard noted that her cheeks were slightly blushed.

“Ah, yes, Miss Granger. Go ahead.” The half-blood frowned at how hoarse his voice suddenly seemed to sound.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know, it’s been over a month since my last update – I’m sorry! However, I have been extremely busy with school and I also went on a vacation with my boyfriend. To make up for that, I’m back with the longest chapter yet.  
> To make matters worse, I will be leaving for two weeks in Cannes on Saturday so there won’t be any updates during that time as well. I will try to update beforehand but I can’t promise anything.  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I would appreciate any feedback!


	7. Confused Minds

Hermione left the Potion professor’s private chambers through the hole in the cold dungeon wall shortly afterwards. Ignoring the strange calls coming from the quirky painting, she made her way through the maze-like corridors as countless thoughts occupied her ever-busy mind.

She was still baffled by the morning’s events. It had been more than exciting (and frankly a bit scary as well) to see the Dungeon Bat’s private chambers with her own eyes. She had of course been invited to several teachers’ chambers before; after all, she and Professor McGonagall had enjoyed the one or the other afternoon tea time filled with interesting discussions and even some motherly advice over the years. But her relationship with Snape - if she ever even had one to begin with - had never been good enough for the two of them to exchange words outside of the classroom, let alone for her to be invited into his quarters. Come to think of it, she couldn’t fathom any student setting foot in those rooms, not even every pure-blood’s favourite Draco Malfoy himself.

For some reason, she hadn’t been surprised by the lack of the Slytherin colour scheme. She had never taken Snape for someone who would excessively want to show off his affiliation to something. She was, however, pleasantly surprised by the warm and comfy atmosphere in his sitting room. She could very well imagine spending many delightful hours there, browsing through her teacher’s impressive book collection.

But the pupil had been even more thrilled about being able to work in the greasy git’s Potions lab. She was still mesmerised. She had of course known that his laboratory would be well-equipped and adequately taken care of. But she had been completely awestruck by the sheer extent of colourful potions, rare ingredients and weird tools hidden away in the small dungeon space. Even though she was arguably one of the smartest witches in the world, she could never name half of the things she'd seen in the lab. The Dungeon Bat owned so many odd and complex appliances, some of which seemed to be older than Hogwarts itself. The brunette had also never seen as many diverse potions in one spot before. She would give anything for a chance to explore this mind-boggling room just once.

However, Hermione was a bit puzzled by Professor Snape’s behaviour. The black-haired wizard had seemed distracted throughout the whole work process; he had avoided eye contact and talked even less than he normally would - which probably no one would have thought to be possible. In fact, he never once called her a know-it-all or anything similar to that. When he had finally ushered her out of his chambers, it had seemed as though he couldn’t have her leave fast enough.

The young woman shrugged. “Well, he probably felt extra uneasy because I’m one of his least favourite students invading his space. Can’t really blame him for that …,” she mumbled as she tucked her blouse back into her charcoal grey skirt.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Severus turned on the old rusty faucet and let the cold water trickle down his naked body. Crushed snake fang powder and sweat were rinsed off of him. A few strands of jet-black hair fell into his pale face. He hadn’t felt this uneasy since his days as both the Dark Lord’s servant and Dumbledore’s spy.

He still couldn’t believe what had come over him back in the laboratory. His impure thoughts about his own student made him feel dirty and disgusting. Sure, Granger wasn’t a little girl anymore and most people would think of her as an attractive young woman but having any feelings of this sort was still highly inappropriate for a teacher. In addition, the Dungeon Bat had never been one to show much interest in the opposite sex. As a matter of fact, the wizard hadn’t harboured feelings for any female since Lily Potter, his childhood sweetheart. After her violent death had broken both his heart and will, switching sides and being in constant danger as the headmaster’s puppet in the plan to bring about the downfall of Voldemort hadn’t left much time for him to fall in love again or simply lust after a woman. Seeing the know-it-all’s feminine curves, which were normally hidden underneath Hogwarts’ plain uniform, had made him experience a rush of feelings he had thought long gone.

“Enough!” the black-haired man snarled angrily. “Get a hold of yourself, Severus! Thinking about the Gryffindor Princess in such a way, how low can you get?!”

He hastily turned off the faucet and exited his rundown shower. He walked out of his bathroom into his sitting room, ignoring the water running down his legs onto the floor. He opened one of the small doors, revealing his rather spacious but still cosy bedroom. Taking three big steps, he reached his king-sized bed and let himself fall on his back. He could feel the sheets beneath him getting wet, but he simply didn’t care about that at that moment.

Severus laid in the dark for a good few minutes before his stomach started to growl aggressively. While his body was desperate for food, the Potions professor didn’t feel like eating. He actually didn’t feel like doing anything. He only had about an hour left before he had to get ready to teach his third level Gryffindor and Slytherin students and even just the thought of that made him groan. He closed his dark eyes in exhaustion and was soon fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After months finally a new chapter! I bet all of you are tired of hearing my lame excuses hahah
> 
> But in all honesty, I’m about to graduate in a few months and this school year has just been really, really stressful. The winter break has finally given me some much needed time to get back into writing so here I am! I’ll try to finish a few more chapters so I can update a bit more regularly over the next months.
> 
> What do you think about this chapter? The story is finally picking up some pace ;-)


	8. A Muggle Milestone With A Magical Twist

Over the next week, Severus tried to keep his distance from Miss Granger. He completely ignored the brunette and her ever-waving right arm during regular Potions class and for their Tuesday lesson he simply sent her to the greenhouses to collect some Mandrake leaves as his supply had run low.

When it came time to have their next lesson, however, he could no longer avoid the witch. The Hospital Wing was in dire need of Wiggenweld Potion and the matron had requested such a huge amount that the wizard by no means could have handled it himself. “I will need to have a word with Poppy after supper,” the half-blood thought pettishly as he was measuring salamander blood. “She has to keep a better eye on her stock and request orders earlier! How am I supposed to work like that?! My research sure is suffering terribly under these conditions …” Of course, he would have never admitted that he was mostly trying to dodge long lab hours with the Gryffindor Princess.

On the other side of the classroom, Hermione was stirring three gigantic copper cauldrons simultaneously with the help of her wand. Her brows were furrowed in concentration and the skin on her chapped lips was looking horribly battered. The Potion Master had noticed her lip biting habit years ago but today he was purposely keeping his eyes away from her.

Just as the wizard was concentrating on calculating the right amount of lionfish spines needed for the concoction, the heavy classroom door swung open. “Severus, my old friend!” resonated the headmaster’s well-known voice from the dungeon walls. The younger man winced. In the name of Merlin, the loony fool was the last thing he needed right now!

Looking up, he saw the infamous grey-bearded wizard walking towards his desk. If the ancient madman hadn’t been wearing bright green robes with metallic purple embroidery, this sight might have looked majestic. Severus snorted before giving his employer a small nod of acknowledgement. “Headmaster, what can I do for you?”

Once the old man came to a halt before him, the Head of Slytherin House could see that strange twinkle in his eyes that he knew all too well. What was the nutter up to now? “My boy, I always enjoy getting the chance to converse with you,” Dumbledore said with glee. “Today, however, I have come to see the lovely Miss Granger. As I can see, the two of you are getting along just great!” Severus thought he could see the wizard’s mouth form a slight smirk.

The Muggle-born’s head shot up in surprise. “Me?” she said, a bit flustered. “But why, Professor? Did something happen? Am I needed as Head Girl? Did Harry get hurt during Quidditch practice? Or Ron? Ginny?” One could almost sense her thoughts spinning through the room.

The headmaster chuckled. “Now, now, Miss Granger, no need to worry! Remember, the dangerous times are over now, aren’t they?” The Dungeon Bat could see the know-it-all sigh in relief and nod her head, as if to reassure herself. Trying to remove himself from the situation, he walked over to the cauldrons that the girl had now abandoned and added lionfish spines and flobberworm mucus to their content. Dumbledore continued, “In fact, I have come here on a joyous occasion! After all, I have heard that there is an important day coming up and since I won’t be on school grounds tomorrow, I thought I should come and congratulate you today.”

While the young woman seemed pleasantly surprised and even blushed a little, her pale-skinned instructor was very confused. “Congratulate?”

“Why, yes, Severus. Don’t tell me you weren’t aware that it is Miss Granger’s birthday tomorrow?”

The greasy git rolled his eyes and redirected his attention to the potion, which had now turned red. “I wasn't. And quite frankly, I do not see why it should concern me.”

“But birthdays are always of great importance,” the flamboyant wizard exclaimed almost dramatically. “And need I remind you that it is tradition for apprentices to receive a present from their tutor on their special day? I’m sure you have stumbled across this custom throughout your research.”

Come to think of it, he did recall coming across something like that when re-reading “Hogwarts: A History” after that fateful staff meeting. Severus groaned. He felt like he was being punished for everything he did wrong in life. Not only was he forced to work with one of his least favourite students, now he had to present her with a gift – like he was one of her idiotic little friends! And what should he even give to her? How should he, a 37-year-old man who had never had a proper relationship with a woman in his life, know what today’s girls were into? He grimaced at the thought of going to Hogsmeade and buying heart-shaped candies from Honeydukes or, even worse, being in Gladrags Wizardwear and thinking about what piece of clothing would fit the witch’s well-formed body best.

Professor Dumbledore seemed highly amused by his younger colleague’s reaction. “I’m sure you will find something that is just perfect for our equally as perfect student. Now, Miss Granger, I wish you a very happy birthday and, of course, I didn’t come empty-handed either. I think I made a great pick if I dare say so myself!”

He handed her another one of his pouches, this time it was made of neon yellow fabric with little light blue pearls sewn to the hem. Hermione carefully untied the little sack with her delicate hands, revealing a thin golden bracelet with only one petite charm attached to it: a white, glossy cowry shell.

“I came across this lovely specimen when I spent some days at the Mediterranean coast of France during the summer months. If I recall correctly, you used to spent many happy days with your parents there before you entered the wizarding world, is that so?”

The teenager’s eyes lit up immediately. “Yes! Oh, thank you so much, Professor! What a thoughtful gift, I will cherish it forever!”

The headmaster had a content look on his face as he watched her put on the piece of jewellery.

“I do not want to ruin this precious moment,” Snape suddenly said in a quiet but stern tone. “But I do believe that Miss Granger is here to help me brew, not to celebrate a birthday … Especially one that is still hours away at that.”

Alarmed, his apprentice hurried back to the cauldrons while Dumbledore just chuckled. Making his way back to the classroom door, he turned back around one more time and winked at the Potion Master before disappearing into the dark dungeons. Severus just scowled.

For the next half hour, both of them worked quietly. They had finished brewing the potion and were now filling the green fluid into small glass veils. It was then that the Head Girl decided to break the silence.

“You know, Professor, you don’t need to give me anything. It's not an important birthday anyways,” she said hoarsely.

Not taking his eyes of his work, the big-nosed teacher waited for a while before answering. Eventually, he replied, “Miss Granger, believe me when I say that there is nothing I would rather do. However, I am already forced to take part in this imbecile apprenticeship programme. So I might as well participate to the best of my abilities.” After a short pause, he added, “Not that I have much of a choice. I would never hear the end of it if the headmaster found out that I didn’t play along with his silly antics.”

“Oh, um, well …” the witch stuttered. “I would like to thank you in advance then, Professor.”

Ignoring what she said, he continued, “And if there even is such a thing as an important birthday, the 18th would be one of them. After all, I do believe that it equals coming of age in the Muggle world.”

He could see her frown out of the corner of his eye. “Certainly, but most wizards do not seem to attach value to this. I reckon the majority of them don’t even know that there is a difference between the wizarding and the Muggle world in this regard.”

“I do hope I would be aware of it, having a Muggle father after all.” The Potions professor only noticed his mistake when he saw Granger’s jaw drop almost to the ground and then his eyes widened in shock. He had just shared personal information with a student! The former Death Eater had always been a very private man and this was something he had never done before, not even with his favourite Slytherins. And now he slipped up in front of a member of the idiotic trio?! He cursed under his breath.

“Miss Granger, it looks like there are only a few veils left to fill. I believe you should go now.”

The Dungeon Bat could see that it took her a moment to regain her composure before she bobbed her head slightly and started gathering her belongings. Once she had left the classroom, he put his head in his hands – he could already feel a migraine coming.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Hours later, Hermione was making her way from the Astronomy tower back to her private quarters. As soon as she was inside her room, she threw her heavy bag on the floor and let herself fall onto her bed. She was exhausted. It was almost midnight and it had been a long day. While she had always been a night owl, she certainly needed her sleep during the week.

The brunette remained like this for a few minutes before she reluctantly sat back up and took off her uniform. She stood up, walked over to her closet and pulled out some outworn pyjamas which she had received as a Christmas gift from Mrs Weasley one year. They were terribly ugly, being of a washed-out pink colour and having an atrocious floral pattern, but they were comfortable and Hermione loved them to pieces.

After finishing her nightly routine consisting of washing her face, brushing her teeth, packing her bag for the following day and casting a few protective enchantments – an old, hard to kick habit of wartime – the Gryffindor student finally slipped into bed. Her eyelids were already heavy so she immediately closed them and wrapped herself even tighter in her warm blanket.

She had almost fallen asleep when she suddenly heard tapping on glass. Confused and still a bit drowsy, the girl turned around and noticed one of Hogwarts’ owls sitting on her windowsill. She furrowed her brows as she got back up and walked over to the bird. Who in their right mind would send out something so late? Hermione obtained a little package from the animal and gave it a small treat in exchange before closing the window and getting back into bed. She cautiously removed the brown wrapping paper and soon realised the packet held a rather old-looking book.

“ _Lumos_ ,” she whispered. With the light glowing from her wand, she was able to take a better look at the publication in front of her. The title was almost faded but she could still decipher it: “Long-forgotten Secrets of the Mayan Wizarding Culture – Potions, Spells and More”.

Suddenly the famous witch was wide-awake and even let out a minor shriek. Unbelievable! In her hands, she was holding one of only twelve known copies of one of the most sought-after literary masterpieces from the 18th century. It is so rare that some wizards and witches would give both of their arms just to catch a glimpse of it. And now it seemed as though the school’s know-it-all was in possession of an exemplar – Hermione was in complete shock.

Even more shocking, however, was the fact that she had seen this priceless book before – on one of the shelves in Professor Snape’s sitting room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voilà, an extra-long chapter! I hope you enjoyed, please leave me some feedback in the comments!


	9. Girl Talk

“Hermione, would you mind if Ron and I go now? Not to be rude, but we have Quidditch practice and … you know,” Harry said sheepishly.

Hermione couldn’t help but smile. The boys and Ginny had surprised her for her birthday with a lovely evening. They had caught her after Transfiguration class and brought her to her private chambers which had been decorated with Muggle party supplies: The walls were covered with about two dozen balloons, some cheap paper streamers and even a tacky banner that read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY HERMIONE! XOXO”. Her friends had also showered her in gifts which were now stacked on her dresser: A fluffy scarf made of wool with a matching beanie and mittens from Ron (the witch had the sneaking suspicion that he hadn’t actually purchased them but rather had them made by his mother), a wide selection of magical beauty items from Ginny as well as an expensive looking quill set from her favourite stationary store in Diagon Alley and an interesting book about wizarding tattoos - which moved just like magical photos and paintings - from Harry. The brunette had let out a little laugh when discovering that it was the same one she had purchased from Tomes and Scrolls earlier this year and that was now sitting on one of her shelves – not that she would ever tell him. It’s the gesture that counts, after all!

“No worries, Harry,” the beautiful Head Girl said. “Of course you can go! I know how important this last season is for both of you.”

“And besides,” the youngest Weasley chimed in. “Hermione and I need some time to ourselves for a long overdue girl talk anyways! With all this school work and stressing out about Quidditch, we haven’t had a chance to chat in forever! I hope you don’t mind me missing out on one training session?”

“Of course not, Gin!” her black-haired boyfriend said lovingly before moving in to give her a quick peck on the lips. After having the weight of constant threats and fear for the lives of his loved ones lifted from his shoulders following the end of the war, the young wizard with the famous lightning scar finally seemed comfortable enough to have a normal and out-in-the-open relationship with his redheaded sweetheart.

He and Ron then hugged the birthday girl goodbye before making a swift exit. As soon as the door shut behind them, Ginny turned to her friend with the biggest grin on her face, it almost made the freckles on her rosy cheeks look like they were dancing.

“We finally did it, Hermione!” she exclaimed excitedly.

The older girl frowned in confusion. “Who did what?”

“Harry and I! You know …,” she said with a cheeky smile.

“Oh … OH!” The topic instantly made the witch feel awkward. “Um, well, that’s great for you, Ginny!”

“Thank you! Oh Hermione, it was so wonderful! We sneaked out late night on Saturday and met up in the Room of Requirement. I don’t know what Harry asked for exactly but he definitely aced it! The whole room was decorated with rose petals and floating candles and there was a huge canopy bed and even a fireplace! I can’t even tell you how long I had been waiting for this moment and it turned out just perfect! Harry was so gentle and …”

Hermione listened to her best friend babble on with only half an ear. She was happy for Ginny, of course, but at the same time she couldn’t help but feel a little sullen. With the majority of her teenage years having been filled with cramming for exams while trying to keep Harry alive and out of trouble, she had never had the time for any romantic escapades. In her juvenile blindness, Gilderoy Lockhart had been her first heartthrob and she had even harboured a small crush on Sirius Black for a while. A quick snog with Viktor Krum next to the Quidditch Pitch during the Yule Ball, however, was the most action she had ever had. While most people (including Harry, Ginny and probably Ron himself) still seemed to think that she and the Gryffindor Keeper would someday end up together, the know-it-all had ruled that out a long time ago. She loved the boy dearly, but he would never be more than a friend to her. They were just too different. The young woman needed someone more mature, someone who put as much emphasise on intellect and academics as her.

“… and I’m just so happy right now! I really feel like our relationship has really been taken to a whole new level.” The redhead paused for a second. “Anyways, enough of me. Now tell me what’s been going on in the life of Hogwarts’ smartest smartass.”

“Ginny!” Hermione exclaimed indignantly, but she did have to giggle when she saw her friend’s smug expression. Her mates had figured out a long time ago how to rile her up using curse words. “Well, not much really. I’ve been studying, fulfilling my duties as Head Girl, doing my lessons with Professor Snape and –“

“Galloping gargoyles! I had totally forgotten about that slimy bastard and you!” the younger witch shouted, ignoring the brunette’s shocked and appalled look. “I still can’t believe that you chose him as your tutor! I mean, I’m already having a hard time with how strict McGonagall is being with me and she can’t be half as bad as that minger. How are you holding up?”

“It’s not that bad, Ginny. I mean, yes, he does make me work hard but that’s what I signed up for, I do want to improve my brewing skills after all. Besides, I think that all of you have a completely wrong impression of Professor Snape. It’s true that he’s quite stern and almost cold sometimes, but he was a true hero during the war, you know that as well as I do. And after allowing me to work in his private lab and giving me this amazing birthday gift, I don’t believe –“

“WHAT?” The ginger’s outcry was so intense that her hazel eyes bulged to an abnormal extent. “Private lab? Birthday gift?! What the heck, Hermione? You haven’t even been working with that plonker for three weeks and you already seem to talk about a completely different Snape than me!”

The Muggle-born was a bit irritated with being interrupted yet again, but she decided to let it slide. “Merlin’s beard, Ginny, calm down! Yes, we are both talking about the same _Professor_ Snape, and yes, he is still the same snarky and spiteful wizard as always. More importantly, it is not like he invited me into his private laboratory voluntarily. The Hospital Wing needed a potion urgently but the Potions classroom was occupied with some second year students. So he didn’t really have a choice but to use his own workspace.”

“Hmm, I guess that makes sense. It’s still weird though.” There was a brief moment of silence. “Wait… Wouldn’t his lab be in his private quarters?”

When she didn’t answer immediately, the ginger-haired adolescent started jumping up and down excitedly on the bed. “By Merlin’s balls, Hermione! I cannot believe you’ve entered the Dungeon Bat’s private chambers and lived to tell the tale! How does it look down there? Is it true that he has covered every single mirror with cloth so he doesn’t have to see his ugliness just like Charlie used to want me to believe? Oh, you have to tell me everything!”

Hogwarts’ brightest student rolled her eyes. “Ginny, just stop it! It really wasn’t that big of a deal. I had to promise him not to tell a soul anyways. So don’t even try to squeeze any details out of me.”

“Oh, come on! You can’t lure me with such a scandalous story and then leave out all of the juicy details! You will tell me, even if I have to force you!” And with those words she dropped to her knees, grabbed one of the pillows on the bed and started hitting her friend ruthlessly.

“OUCH! Hey, Ginny, stop it! AH!” The birthday girl tried dodging the cushioned weapon, but it was of no avail. “Okay, okay, stop bothering me already! You’re really something, Ginevra Weasley. It’s quite mean of you to treat me in such a way on my birthday, you know,” Hermione exclaimed before hastily fixing her now messed-up ponytail. “I will tell you, but you must promise me to not tell anyone, not even Harry! Professor Snape would kill me if he found out that I dared to tell anyone.”

The redhead was beaming following her victory. “Pinky promise!”

Hermione sighed audibly before proceeding, “Well, his rooms are definitely not what you would expect. I didn’t view them in their entirety, of course, but from what I could see there wasn’t a speck of Slytherin colours at all. It didn’t feel like a dark and gloomy dungeon space either. His sitting room is filled with hundreds upon hundreds of books, some of which I’ve never even heard of, Gin! Oh, how I wish I could just go back and browse for a few hours! Some books seem to be decades-old originals that were written by hand and –“ She stopped herself when she saw the annoyed look on the other girl’s face. “Anyways, it’s actually quite cosy there; he even has a fireplace. And yes, there was a mirror, without any cloth in sight. That’s about it, really. There were some doors leading to other rooms but he directed me into the laboratory quite quickly. I know you’re not that into brewing potions, but let me tell you that even you would be amazed by that place. So much amazing machinery and rare ingredients! Oh, I could go on forever!”

“Yeah, yeah, please spare me the details! I couldn’t care less about his silly collection –“ Ginny skilfully overlooked her friend’s frown. “The interesting part is that you’ve actually been inside his private chambers. That’s crazy! Just wait until Harry and Ron find out, we’ll be able to play so many awesome pranks on him! Next time you go –“

“No, Ginny! I told you, you can’t tell anyone!”

“But –“

“Stop! You promised me, remember? I don’t think I’ll ever have the chance to go back anyways. Plus, after receiving Professor Snape’s terrific gift yesterday, I really should be thankful rather than playing any mean tricks on him.”

To beat the redhead to another emotional outburst, she quickly explained Dumbledore’s visit and the tradition of giving gifts to one’s apprentice.

“So, McGonagall will give me a birthday gift, too?” Ginny asked eagerly. When the Head Girl confirmed with a nod, she carried on, “Sweet! Anyhow, what did the old bugger get you?”

Hermione furled her eyebrows in distaste before using the Summoning Charm, “ _Accio Long-forgotten Secrets of the Mayan Wizarding Culture_.” She then handed her new most prized possession to the other female.

“Huh? It just looks like some old book that’s about to fall apart,” Ginny said, disappointed by the dated volume laying on her lap.

“I know it may not look like much but it’s the exact opposite. This here,” Hermione lifted the book so it was on eye-level with the ginger’s face. “– is one of the most infamous wizarding works ever created. It is so rare that not even the Ministry of Magic possesses a copy. Gin, this is worth more than the net worth of all Quidditch players worldwide combined!”

Finally understanding the severity of the situation, the youngest Weasley gasped. “And Snape still gave it to you? Why in Merlin’s name would he do that?”

“I honestly do not know. I mean, a gift like this would be excessive even if we were friends. I don’t know why he would do this despite his hatred for me.”

“Hatred? Come on, Hermione! Everybody knows he practically loves you,” Ginny giggled.

When the know-it-all only gave her a confused look, she continued, “Hey, you can’t tell me you really believe that he hates you! I mean, first of all, you are the perfect student that any professor would love. You don’t only work hard but you’re also always eager to learn, polite and punctual. And you’re one of a handful of student that actually takes an interest in Potions class. I don’t think you’ve ever messed up a potion in your life; everything you brew is as close to perfection as it could get. Besides, don’t even try to pretend as though you’ve never noticed how he always stares at you!”

“WHAT?!”

“Woah, relax! It’s not like he’s eyeballing you in a creepy way or anything. But it is true that he always seems to observe you interestedly. Like when you used promoted S.P.E.W. during lunch time in the Great Hall,” Ginny said. “Everybody says so. Harry told me that whenever there was a potion assigned in class, Snape would pretend to sit at his desk and grade papers or something. In reality, however, he would stealthily be observing you. You know, as though he was impressed by your skills.”

Hermione was puzzled. Could it really be that Professor Snape had taken a liking to her? It’s true that most teachers loved her for her reliable and studious personality, but she had always thought that the Potion Master despised her for being an annoying walking encyclopaedia. Even if he didn’t completely detest her, she still couldn’t fathom the possibility of him admiring her brewing technique or much less even acknowledge any of her desperate tries to prove herself to him. At the end of the day, she was still a Gryffindor – and a friend of Harry Potter at that.

“So, what are you going to do about this gift?” Ginny’s question tore Hermione from her thoughts. “Did you already thank him?”

“No. He sent it to me late last night by owl and I didn’t see him today. He wasn’t in the Great Hall during breakfast and lunch and I also couldn’t find him in his office during my break. Besides, I wouldn’t even know what to say. I mean, this is the most amazing gift anyone’s ever given to me!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little later than intended but for some reason I was having so much trouble finishing this chapter! Maybe it was writer’s block or something. I’m still not 100 % satisfied with the result but I honestly don’t think I could do any better right now and it’s not a super highly important part of the story anyways.  
> I still hope you enjoyed and I would appreciate any feedback!


	10. Oh, How Intimate First Names Can Be!

Severus cut the Head Girl off before she could even get a single word out. “Miss Granger, today you will be brewing a rather easy potion which you have learnt during your first year at this school: the Cure for Boils. As I will be instructing this year’s first-graders on how to brew this particular potion tomorrow, I thought it would be wise to have some veils of it on hand already. After all, we both know how foolish and dim-witted some students can be.” The former Death Eater was, of course, referring to how Neville Longbottom once made a cauldron melt while brewing this very potion. “Now, when you first learnt how to make this potion, you used a formula that can be found in ‘Magical Drafts and Potions’. Today, however, you will be working according to the brewing instructions in the ‘Book of Potions’, as that version does not consume as much time. As you can see, I have written the directions on the blackboard. You may take the required ingredients from the storage room and get started.”

As Hermione obediently got down to work and started crushing snake fangs, the Potion Master sat down behind his desk. He pulled up some student essays to correct, but he couldn’t concentrate on them no matter how hard he tried. He stared at the letters and words written in smudged ink in front of him, however, his mind couldn’t form coherent sentences out of them. It seemed like this was becoming a pattern for him; he hadn’t been able to be productive for weeks. Whenever he had tried to do some research or even just read a book, his mind had started to fill with thoughts about a certain insufferable know-it-all.

Severus was hopelessly distraught. He was disgusted with himself for acting like a teenage boy going through puberty all over again. It didn’t matter whether he was eating in the Great Hall, teaching in his classroom or walking through the castle’s busy corridors; he couldn’t help his thoughts wandering to his apprentice. To combat this, he tried to keep himself as busy as possible and had even started to lash out at his students more than usual. But his desperate attempts proved fruitless; once he would lie in bed at night, the darkness engulfing him, the Potions professor couldn’t stop his imagination anymore. His head would be filled with images of the Gryffindor Princess, both real and imaginary: Miss Granger in his private laboratory, bent over a cauldron, beads of sweat running down her slender neck into her cleavage. Miss Granger in his sitting room, spread across the carpet in front of the fireplace, reading one of his beloved books while only scantily clad. Miss Granger straddling him on his bed, a cheeky smile on her face, moving in to kiss him with those luscious lips of hers. He couldn’t help his body’s reaction to this forbidden mental image either and it made him feel like a complete sicko.

The black-haired man knew he was doomed. Why oh why did this have to happen to him out of all people?! The Head of Slytherin, a former Death Eater and more often referred to as the greasy git of the dungeons, lusting after Gryffindor’s on-site smartass who was half his age; could it really get any worse? Had he honestly gotten so desperate for female touch that he had to resort to fantasising about a girl still wearing her school uniform? He had only been in love once in his life and that had ended in a tragedy. Except for some random encounters with witches he didn’t care for, he didn’t have any experience when it came to the opposite sex. Even if his little crush weren't immoral or wrong, it could never work out anyways. The Dungeon Bat wasn’t exactly what one would call a chick magnet. His nose was disproportionately large, his skin was almost sickeningly pale and his entire body was battered and scarred from the torture he had had to endure as a follower of the Dark Lord. A smart girl like Hermione Granger would never love an old wreck like him.

No! Who was even talking about love? Severus was simply getting turned on by her, that was all – he was a man after all. Yes, while he had had many good-looking students walk into his Potions classroom over the years, none of them had ever caused such a reaction. But that was probably due to the fact that the war was finally over now. With him not having to constantly fear for his life anymore, his body was seemingly starting to act “normal” again, including his libido. With not many options available to him, it was no wonder that he would stoop as low as to desire someone as annoying, overzealous and pesky as Granger. Mind you, she had grown up to be a beautiful and attractive witch. Him suddenly not getting irritated anymore by the constant flow of questions leaving her mouth and instead thinking about that very mouth in a perverted way meant absolutely nothing; he was simply horny. At least that was what Severus tried to tell himself.

To make matters worse, he had gone completely overboard with that stupid birthday gift. After having been forced to play along with this silly tradition by his senile superior, Snape’s mind had been completely blank on what to get his apprentice. Following a frantic one-hour search of his rooms, he had still not been able to find something suitable for an 18-year-old girl. “Well, Granger is a bookworm after all,” he had thought after finally deciding on his volume of “Long-forgotten Secrets of the Mayan Wizarding Culture – Potions, Spells and More”. The Potion Master had never been a fan of this book to begin with; while it was certainly a good read, he thought that it was definitely overrated. Still, she would probably get some enjoyment out of it somehow. He had only realised his mistake once he had already sent off the owl. Even if he himself didn’t think much of the book, the witch would certainly be bewildered as to why her teacher would gift her something so rare and valuable. There was no doubt that she would start to question his intentions sooner or later.

Severus let out a small grunt. He would have to find a way out of this misery. From here on out, he would try to further limit his contact with Miss Granger; continuing to outright ignore her in class and giving her tasks to complete elsewhere during their lessons. He could also do some research and look for a potion that would suppress his bodily desires. Worst case scenario, he would have to go to the sketchy part of Diagon Alley late at night and find a willing witch to let his sexual frustration out on. Perhaps he could also have a talk with Albus and ask him to reassign Miss Granger to – 

Suddenly, there was a loud blast coming from the other side of the room. Alarmed, Severus looked up from his papers but all he could see was a half-demolished cauldron and a lot of dark blue smoke – there was no sign of his young student.

His heart leapt into his throat. “HERMIONE!” the former Death Eater cried out before sprinting to the scene of the accident. With a quick flick of his wooden wand, both the exploded vessel and the smoke vanished. It was then that he discovered Harry Potter’s best friend lying on the cold dungeon floor, covered in a mixture of unfinished teal-coloured potion and what he suspected to be blood. Her head of curls had become a fuzzy mess and her face was completely drained of colour.

Severus dropped to his knees immediately and grabbed her by the arms to pull her onto his lap. Thankfully, the brunette was still breathing, however, the blow of the explosion seemed to have knocked her out. He feverishly thought about what could have caused such a catastrophe; brewing Boil Cure was a simple task after all. With a brief glance at the blackboard, it finally dawned on him: He had forgotten to add a warning to only stir the potion very gently after adding the pickled Shrake spines; otherwise they tended get overexcited and therefore become explosive. The Potion Master had assumed that Granger would have known this already but it seemed as though even the knowledge of Hogwarts’ most brilliant student wasn’t all-encompassing.

Snape couldn’t help but blame himself for this rookie mistake as he swiftly conjured a cushioned stretcher which his apprentice was then placed on. After a quick assessment of the witch’s injuries, he was sure that apart from some cuts and bruises the damage wasn’t too bad. As a next step, he ripped open her singed and torn blouse, trying hard to ignore her now visible ruffled bra. Using some basic cleaning spells, he made quick work of the sticky potion and blood mixture before focusing on the main problem. “ _Vulnera Sanentur_ ,” he whispered as he dragged his wand along the wounds on her chest and arms. He had invented that spell during his own years as a student and while it had originally been intended to mend severe injuries, it had become his go-to healing spell over time – because he'd always had the most faith in his own creations after all. A quick Repairing Charm later, the Head Girl’s tattered clothing was back to its original state. Severus then disappeared into his storage room just to come back out a few minutes later with a crystalline phial in one hand and a small jar of ointment in the other. He placed the tin on a table nearby before kneeling down next to his patient yet again. Supporting her head with his left hand, he poured a drop of Wideye Potion down the girl’s throat; it'd come from the very batch they had brewed not even two weeks earlier. Sitting back, all he could do then was to wait for her to wake up.

Soon enough, Hermione started to stir and eventually let out a muffled groan before opening her brown eyes, seemingly disorientated. It was only when she attempted to sit up that the Potion Master spoke.

“You shouldn’t try to get back up quite yet, unless you enjoy feeling lightheaded, of course,” he said with an icy undertone as he stood up and moved back to his desk, sensing her questioning look following his every move. He sat down in his black leather chair and waited for her to speak.

“What happened?” she finally managed to ask, her voice still husky.

“It seems as though I have overestimated your brewing abilities greatly, Miss Granger, as you appear to have disregarded the required safety precautions concerning the use of Shrakes in potions, subsequently blowing yourself up. As a result, you have not only forced me to interrupt my work and come to your aid, but I will now also have to utilise my free time later this evening to prepare the required potion for tomorrow’s class. For this unbelievable foolishness, I shall deduct 15 points from Gryffindor.” A tear was slipping down the witch’s left cheek, whether it was caused by the pain from her injuries or his cold words he did not know. The incident hadn’t been completely her fault, of course, but Severus didn’t care. He told himself that the insufferable know-it-all should have known better than to make such a ludicrous mistake. Now that he knew that she would eventually recover, worry and shock was replaced with anger: Anger over his doom-laded error, anger over how distressed the sight of her unconscious and wounded body had made him, anger over how he was a slave to his primal needs and anger over how he had frantically called out her name just minutes earlier. He was practically seething.

“Now, I suggest you take this jar of dittany,” he commanded, pointing to the small object on the desk to her right. “As I’m sure you know it prevents scarring. Or maybe you don’t. Who could be sure after such a grave mishap?”

Apparently, he'd gone a step too far with his mocking, because the young woman promptly started to sob uncontrollably. Standing up abruptly, still a bit unstable on her legs, she bolted from the room, leaving the ointment behind. Her teacher grabbed the pieces of parchment sitting on his desk and flung them against the brick wall in a blind rage. Damn Hermione Granger, damn those oversensitive Gryffindors, damn his own emotional turmoil!

Later that night, Severus was staring at the ceiling of his bedroom, unable to sleep. “Hermione,” he let the name roll off his tongue in a hushed voice. For some reason, saying her given name seemed way more intimate than all of the deviant fantasies he had had about little Miss Granger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this update! Please leave me some feedback down below :-)


	11. Just A Filthy Mudblood

Over the course of the following month, there was a noticeable cold distance between the Potion Master and his apprentice. Somehow his snarky comments following the brewing accident seemed to have affected the young witch more than any of his other equally as mean remarks in the past. As a result, she stopped raising her hand during class and was always the last one to arrive and the first one to leave the gloomy dungeon room; if she showed up at all that was. Severus had noticed that it was unlike the insufferable know-it-all to skip class, of course, but he left it at deducting points whenever she did. She was Minerva’s responsibility and not his, after all. Her essays, which had used to be excessive and elaborated, were kept to a minimum and soon turned dull. During their private lessons, she never made eye contact with him and only gave one-word answers. Not that Severus minded any of that; in fact, he was glad. Her refusal to communicate with him made it a lot easier to get her out of his head. After a few weeks, he stopped having indecent thoughts about the girl all together which put his mind at ease – that silly infatuation had only been a phase after all.

At least that’s what he believed until one fateful Friday evening in mid-October. The Dungeon Bat was sitting at the desk in his dark office, grading papers about Lobalug venom and its uses in potions written by his third-year Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students. The essay in front of him at that very moment was starting to turn into a sea of red ink and Snape rolled his dark eyes in frustration. While they certainly had their good qualities, he had been yet to encounter a Hufflepuff with a single ounce of talent for potion brewing. Just as he was about to write a particularly nasty comment at the bottom of the 3-foot-long parchment paper, there suddenly was commotion coming from outside the door.

“Fuck off!” the deep voice of a man resonated through the dungeon hallways.

“No!” Severus instantly matched the high-pitched tone to Granger. “As Head Girl, it is my duty to protect all students from any physical or emotional harm. I clearly saw you use the Stinging Hex on poor little Stewart Ackerly as he was going up the Grand Staircase so you will be accompanying me to your Head of House for appropriate disciplinary action at once!”

“Listen here, you manky cunt,” the male retaliated angrily. “I will not be told what to do by someone like _you_ , do you fucking understand?! I do not give a shit about what stupid little title that dickhead of a headmaster gave you or what idiotic principles you think you need to uphold, I will not be bossed around by a Mudblood! The war may be over, but don’t think for a second that you will ever be more than the scum of the earth. Your kind shouldn’t even be allowed at this school!”

When Severus then heard a loud bang followed by a squealing outcry, he finally jumped out of his chair and rushed to the door. By the time he had pushed it open and run into the secluded corridor, Theodore Nott had already cornered the Gryffindor Princess in an alcove, pushing her significantly smaller frame against the mouldy stone wall while having his wand buried deep into the flesh of her neck.

“I should really just take you out here and now. Not that anyone would care about one less minging Mudblood tainting –“ All the Potion professor needed was one simple hand movement to nonverbally and wandlessly disarm the Slytherin and catapult him several metres into the air, eliciting an anguished yelp upon impact with the hard ground. Meanwhile, the now freed witch dropped to the floor. Breathing heavily, she struggled to contain her tears as her hand shot up to rub her flushed neck.

“Miss Granger, would you please go into my office and wait there while I take care of this … situation,” Severus muttered, dangerously calm as he walked towards the young pure-blood cowering in front of him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the girl frantically using the sleeve of her grey sweater to wipe her reddened eyes before slowly getting back on her feet. “But –“ she started before her professor interrupted her.

“Now, Miss Granger.”

With one last glace at her assailant, Hermione brushed past her tutor and disappeared into the office room. Once Snape heard the lock latch, he grabbed the boy at his feet by the collar and pushed him against the wall violently, much like the wimp had done to the Gryffindor just seconds earlier.

“Mr Nott,” he basically spat the name into the lanky adolescent’s face. “Just what is it that you think you are doing?! Not only did you defy the orders of the Head Girl, someone who has almost as much disciplinary power as any professor at this school, mind you; you also just physically assaulted another student!”

The Potion Master could nearly smell the teenager’s fear. “But Professor, she deserved it! A Mudblood like her –“

“DO NOT EVER DARE TO USE THIS WORD IN MY PRESENCE AGAIN!” Severus screamed, the veins of his neck protruding severely. “Now that the Dark Lord is gone, I will no longer be tolerating this kind of behaviour at this school! Slytherin or not, you would do better to keep your idiotic prejudices to yourself; because if I ever hear you or anyone else use such terminology again, you will have wished that I had used just the Cruciatus Curse on you, believe me!” With that, he pushed the student from him.

Not giving the young man a chance to speak, he continued, “To show you just how unacceptable your behaviour was, Mr Nott, I shall deduct 250 points from Slytherin. In addition, you will be serving detention once a week for the rest of the school year; I do believe that Mr Filch could use some help scrubbing the toilets. You shall also no longer be permitted to attend any Quidditch games or go into Hogsmeade. Oh, and I will deduct another 50 points for your assault of that Ravenclaw boy.”

Giving the pure-blood one last scowl, he pointed down the hallway. “Now, get out of my sight!”

Severus watched in disgust as the brown-haired boy scurried off into the depths of the dungeons. Taking a few minutes to regain his composure, he remembered himself around that age. An outsider and a misfit, he had always tried so desperately to fit in. He'd had one real friend in his life that truly cared for him, Lily. But in his foolish arrogance, he had managed to mess even that up. It had been then that he made the biggest mistake of his lifetime: joining Voldemort’s ranks and becoming a Death Eater. Subconsciously rubbing his left forearm, he was disappointed about how ignorant he had been. Looking back, it was easy to see the stupidity of it all: Bitter witches and wizards who hadn’t been able to accept the fact that the blood purity they so frantically tried to cling onto possessed no significance and a maniac who had turned himself into a monster trying to become immortal. He would be damned if he let this idiocy carry on any longer!

With one last deep breath, he turned around and went back into his office. At first glance, he thought that Granger had somehow sneaked out while he had been telling her attacker off as he couldn’t detect her in the little room. But then he discovered her sitting on the old stool he kept in the corner, hugging her legs tight to her body and looking like a picture of misery.

“Miss Granger –“ At his words, she abruptly startled up and Severus could see her tear-streaked face. An agonised sob escaped her mouth before she quickly turned away from him.

Stunned, Severus walked over to her and carefully placed his hand on her quivering shoulder, trying hard to ignore how his heart skipped a beat as he touched the young witch. “Miss Granger,” he repeated but yet again, he only received more whimpers in response. 

The former Death Eater let out a deep sigh before squatting down in front of the brunette. While he had made many students cry in his days, he had never tried to console one before. “Please look at me, Miss Granger. Why are you so distraught?” he asked in what he thought was a soothing tone.

After a few more sniffs and sobs, Hermione’s shaking voice could finally be heard from underneath the mountain of untamed curls. “He’s right,” she said softly, keeping her face well-hidden from her teacher.

Severus frowned. “Certainly not, Miss Granger. Even though Mr Nott may be of a different opinion, the positions of Head Boy and Head Girl are important ones that have proven themselves useful for many centuries now and –“

“No,” his apprentice interrupted him hoarsely. “He’s right about me being a Mudblood.”

Severus was flabbergasted. “Don’t say –“

“BUT IT’S TRUE!” Hermione practically screamed, her head shooting up to reveal the anguished expression on her blotchy face. “Voldemort may be dead, but things haven’t changed. In people’s eyes, I will always be worth less because I am Muggle-born. It doesn’t matter how hard I try; even if I’m the best at everything I will never be more than a, a –“ A lone tear escaped her chocolate brown eyes. “ _A filthy Mudblood_.”

When Severus didn’t react immediately, still too dumbfounded to speak, she grimaced one last time before jumping up and bolting for the door.

“Miss Granger, don’t –“ he pleaded, grabbing her by her wrist, which in turn caused her to lose her footing and fall back onto him. Unable to remain upright following the collision, he soon found himself on the dusty stone floor with the bawling witch lying on top of him. Severus tried to get back up, embarrassed by the sudden physical contact, but the Gryffindor Princess just sobbed even louder and buried her face into the crook of his neck. Not knowing what to do, he awkwardly embraced her shaking frame with his arms and slowly started stroking her back.

“Miss Granger,” he muttered softly. “I might have to obliviate you after saying this, but believe me when I say that you are worth more than all of Britain’s pure-bloods combined. This school has never seen a student as brilliant and smart as you. It is not your fault if those backward-thinking fanatics cannot come around to accept that one’s blood status has nothing to do with one’s magical abilities, you being the best example for that. You are not worth less just because you were born to non-magical parents. If anything, you are superior to those of us that grew up solely in the wizarding community, as you can move around the Muggle world freely without causing much of a stir – you got the best of both worlds, really!” When his lousy attempt of a joke was met with only more crying and tremble, he hurriedly carried on with his speech, “Besides, you are a war hero, Miss Granger! If it hadn’t been for your wits and resourcefulness, Potter would have been killed a long time ago; maybe not even at the hands of the Dark Lord but rather due to a botched potion brewing attempt or the like. You played a key role in the downfall of the most dangerous wizard to ever exist, any Death Eater that is still left out there as well as those who continue to sympathise with that outdated mindset would do better to fear you. I mean, none of my Slytherins were even brave enough to become my apprentice. Tell me how anyone could claim to be a superior being if they can’t even face the bat of the dungeons? Not that any of them would have been academically ambitious enough anyways …”

Severus made a small pause before he continued, “As hard as it may be, do not let their ignorant remarks get to you and do not let yourself be consumed by hatred for them either, as there is already enough hate in the world. If anything, feel pity for them. Their dim-witted pride occupies them so much that they can’t even enjoy their lives. They let themselves be controlled by their fear of becoming insignificant, of losing the power they once held. All they have left are their half-burnt family tapestries filled with incest and tragedy. And once they come to their senses and realise their mistakes, which they one day will, be the bigger person and forgive them. The burden of their sins will be punishment enough. I –“ He struggled to find the right words. “I myself am guilty of such a shameful past and I have spent the last 20 years paying for it. Unfortunately, some people don’t seem to learn from history and it mortifies me to see my Slytherins, the students of my beloved house, follow in the footsteps of their misguided parents. It’s … it’s just not right and it will never be.”

The female in his arms seemed to have been calmed down by his words as she was no longer audibly crying and Severus was glad about that; just like many men, he was absolutely terrified of a woman's tears. Taking a deep breath, he finally did what he had done so rarely in life and never to a student at that: He apologised. “My actions towards you were so often intolerantly mean, Miss Granger. Not only regarding the unfortunate incident with the Boil Cure, which was caused by my carelessness rather than yours; but for all the years I let you and your …” Trying not to upset her any further, he searched for a neutral word to use for her dunderhead friends. “ _Peers_ suffer from my teaching style. I had to uphold a certain façade, of course, considering that I was still pretending to be on the Dark Lord’s side. However, I often took it too far. Especially you, Miss Granger, shouldn’t have been put through all that, as you were an excellent student. I know I do not deserve it, but I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”

The Potions professor waited for a response, but the Head Girl remained quiet. Had he gone too far? Did she feel cornered by his sudden confession? Panic arose inside of Severus. Oh, he knew he shouldn’t have done that! Opening up to anyone, particularly to a student, was just asking for trouble. Now she will go out and tell her idiotic friends about what a pussy he really was and then they would never take him seriously again! All of the sudden, the black-haired man became irate.

“Enough of this nonsense,” he said in his typical cold and threatening voice. “For your pathetic behaviour, I shall deduct 10 points from Gryffindor. House of the brave, my arse! Now, get off me at once!”

Still, no response. “Miss Granger?” Severus asked. A look of slight confusion appeared on his pale face. “Miss Granger! … _Hermione?_ ”

Just then, a loud snore escaped the witch’s lips – she had fallen asleep minutes ago.

Not wanting to wake her up now that she had finally calmed done, Severus carefully readjusted her position on his body and let his head fall back until it came to a rest on the stone floor. He would wait a few minutes to make sure she was properly sleeping before moving her off him and getting back to work. And meanwhile, he would just ignore that stupid feeling forming in his stomach. Yes, that’s what he would do.

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When Hermione woke up the next morning, her body was aching but at the same time she felt extremely well-rested. To tell the truth, she hadn’t slept that well since her fifth year. The death of Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, had made it all real back then and she had been battling terrible nightmares ever since. A smile appeared on her pale face; maybe those times were finally behind her! Her eyes still closed, she snuggled up more to the life-size teddy bear behind her, which her older cousin had won for her at their town’s fair more than a decade ago. Only that teddy bears normally didn’t groan or pull you closer to them – and so the brunette was abruptly wide-awake.

Understandably shocked and confused, Hermione’s eyes flew open but she immediately flinched in pain; for some reason her eyelids were swollen and hurt when she tried to open them. How weird, had she been crying? A quick wandless healing spell later, she was finally able to take a look at her surroundings. Not that this helped her confusion at all: All she could see was a dark room, dimly lit by a few magically enchanted candles fixed to a dark grey stone wall. Was she in the dungeons? If so, she certainly couldn’t remember how she got there. And why was she lying on the floor? The witch was quite frankly baffled.

Just then, her “teddy bear” called attention to himself yet again with another loud groan, reminding the witch of what had caused her to wake up in the first place. By now, she was certain that whatever was behind her wasn’t her beloved stuffed animal, of course, as it was not only a mere Muggle product without the abilities to move or make sounds, but it had also been located on the bed in her childhood room the last time she saw it. So who was holding onto her with a grip made of steel? For a split second, she even believed herself to have been kidnapped by one of the few remaining Death Eaters but she quickly dismissed that thought; one of Voldemort’s fanboys surely wouldn’t be hugging her spoon-style.

The next possibility that her mind came up with was a drunken night that ended in a make out session with some random guy. Not that she had ever done anything like that before, but that was what always happened in the movies, right? She didn’t remember getting drunk, however, Hogwarts _was_ famous for its secret student parties, after all. Normally, it would have been her job as Head Girl to prevent those, but what if she got caught up in something? Hermione furrowed her brows. Oh god, what if it was Ron?! Had she finally given into his advances? She couldn’t help but feel sick to her stomach at the thought of his bloated lips kissing her mouth and his pasty hands roaming her body. If that was really what had happened, then their friendship would be over; there was just no way she could ever look him in the eyes again.

Even though she would rather not know, Hermione had to find out whose hands were holding onto her waist at this very moment. Gulping, she slowly turned her head towards the person behind her. But instead of seeing the expected ginger head of hair and the freckled face of her best friend, she saw the sleeping face of Severus Snape.

“Oh no,” the girl whispered, her eyes wide in shock. “Oh no, no, no, no, no! What the –“

When the sudden noise caused her teacher to stir, the young woman quickly covered her mouth with her hand - it wouldn’t do any good to wake him up before she had figured this whole situation out. After what felt like an eternity, the man finally calmed down again and it was only after her lungs started aching that the witch realised that she had been holding her breath.

“Okay, Hermione, relax,” she told herself. “There has to be a reasonable explanation as to how you and Professor Snape ended up like this. Just think!” Meanwhile, she purposely avoided looking in her cuddling partner’s direction.

The Gryffindor racked her brain, but she couldn’t come up with a plausible reason. She couldn’t remember having an extra apprenticeship lesson scheduled with her tutor (not that she would have had agreed to one). So why had she come to the dungeons? And what’s more, what had led to her and Professor Snape cuddling on the cold floor of his office?

Already close to a panic attack, the previous night’s events then finally came back to her: How Theodore Nott had attacked her. How Professor Snape had come to her rescue. How she had been able to hear him tear the Slytherin student apart. How she had broken down crying. How she had tripped and fallen onto her teacher who had then tried to comfort her. How safe she had felt in his strong arms before drifting off to sleep.

Hermione’s relief about the G-rated explanation was short-lived, however, because she soon noticed how her professor’s face was just a mere inch away from hers. Being so close with him felt so embarrassingly intimate that she couldn’t help her face turning beet red. She awkwardly tried to remove his arms from around her body but that just caused the man to squeeze her even tighter. Merlin’s pants, what was she supposed to do now?

Trying to ignore Snape’s soft snoring, she pondered for a few seconds before reaching down between them. After some awkward fiddling, she finally managed to extract her wand from the pocket of her black skirt. A basic spell later, she was holding a conjured white pillow in her hands. The witch took a shaky breath – so far so good. Now came the tricky part: With one swift movement, she slipped out from between her teacher’s arms while simultaneously replacing her body with the cushion. While Snape didn’t seem to be too happy about losing his cuddly toy (Hermione could have sworn that she saw him pout for a split second), he soon settled back down. His apprentice exhaled in relief.

Trying not to make a sound, the Head Girl stood up and quickly made herself presentable again by smoothing out her rather wrinkly clothes and fixing her tousled hair. Checking her wristwatch, she realised that it was only 4.53 a.m. – with a bit of luck it was still early enough for her to sneak back to her tower without anyone noticing.

As she was about to head to the door, Hermione took another look at her sleeping teacher. Snape looked surprisingly peaceful as he lay there, with a five o'clock shadow gracing his cheeks and a bit of drool coming out of the corner of his half-open mouth. He definitely didn’t look as angry or threating anymore, that was for sure. Not that Hermione had ever been scared of him; she had never truly believed him to be that mean monster all the other students - especially her fellow Gryffindors - made him out be. Yes, he had definitely intimidated her during her younger years and he had even made her cry once or twice. But knowing that he had been putting his life on the line trying to save the world from Voldemort, Hermione had always respected and trusted the Potion Master. He was one of the good ones, regardless of how grumpy and nasty he could be. And while Snape had deeply hurt her feelings with his mean words after the brewing accident, she couldn’t be mad at him anymore after his actions from the previous night. He had not only saved her from an attack, but he had also tried to console her. A small smile appeared on her lips as she stepped closer to his sleeping figure. Leaning forward, she examined the man’s face. While he certainly wasn’t a classic beauty, he could still be considered handsome. His nose was too big but with that strong jawline and those prominent black eyebrows, it only added to his rugged and manly look.

The former Death Eater looked so calm that Hermione almost reached out her hand to touch his cheek. Instead, she swiftly conjured a blanket with which she covered his resting form. Then she walked over to his desk, which was still filled with dozens upon dozens of essays, and ripped a small piece of parchment paper off a blank roll. Using Snape’s golden quill, she quickly scribbled down some words before quietly moving to the door and leaving the room, the dark-haired man still sound asleep on the floor.

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It was not even an hour later when Severus opened his black eyes. Still dazed, he let out a hoarse grunt as he propped himself up on one elbow. He wasn’t surprised about waking up in his office; he had often found himself there after being summoned by the Dark Lord and spending long nights at Death Eater raids. However, he had never woken up with a pillow underneath his head and a fluffy blanket wrapped around him tightly.

Following a brief moment of confusion, the Potion Master remembered the previous night. “I must have fallen asleep as well,” he thought grumpily. After a quick scan of the room, he was sure that he was alone. Feeling a heavy migraine approaching, Severus let out a deep sigh before climbing to his feet. He didn’t even want to think about the Gryffindor’s opinion about him now.

With a quick flick of his wand, he sleeked down his jetblack hair and made his beard stubbles disappear before making his way to the desk. While he felt absolutely whacked physically, he had to admit that he had slept surprisingly well. In fact, he hadn’t slept that well since his own years as a student. Severus frowned. Not that that had anything to do with the little know-it-all, he told himself.

Slumping into his leather chair, the Potion Master was just about to pick up his quill to continue correcting his students’ essays when he noticed a small note written in that small neat handwriting he knew all too well.

_Thank you.  
– H._

As he was reading the short scribble, he could feel that strange warm feeling that he hadn’t felt in about two decades creep through his body. Shit – he was starting to like Granger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year!  
> I’m back with a super long chapter in which a lot of game-changing things happen. I had a really hard time putting my ideas for this part of the story in words but I hope it turned out alright. Please leave me some feedback :-)  
> Unfortunately, I’m about to start school again so updates will probably be scarce over the following months so bear with me!


	12. A Friend For The Lonely Beast At Last

The following days went by way too fast and the weekend was over before Severus knew it. He had spent the two chilly autumn days locked away in his quarters, not emerging from the dark depths of the dungeons even once. While he would normally spend his free days hunting for rare potion ingredients and interesting literature or working on improving his brewing technique, he had passed the past 48 hours buried beneath countless pillows and thick blankets in his large four-poster bed. The only contact to the outside world had been provided by the school’s ever-diligent house elves, who had both kept the Potion Master’s rooms clean and delivered delicious meals three times a day – not that the snarky man had touched much of the food.

On Monday morning, Severus woke up with a throbbing migraine. A quick look at his Muggle watch told him that breakfast was probably already in full swing, but the black-haired man didn’t feel like eating. Most of all, however, he didn’t feel like facing a certain brunette before he absolutely had to. So instead, he got up and moved to the bathroom with sagging shoulders. As he was standing in the shower a few minutes later, letting the icy cold water pour over his naked body, he tried hard to ignore the intrusive thoughts that had already been plaguing him all throughout the past days. They all had something to do with some newly-discovered and rather confusing feelings for a little know-it-all, of course. While he had dismissed his earlier impure thoughts about Miss Granger as the simple result of prolonged abstinence, these unprecedented emotions were of a whole new calibre. Physical attraction was one thing, he could deal with that – but fancying one of his own students, let alone maybe falling in love with them, was too much for the Potion Master. It made him feel almost physically sick. 

Severus had never been one to handle his own feelings well, of course, and his relative inexperience when it came to the opposite sex (especially in the romantic aspects) only added to his insecurity and confusion. The only witch he had ever been interested in, the only one he had ever loved was Lily. And he had always thought that she was the love of his life. Even almost two decades after her violent death, her mental image was still looming over his scarred heart. The redheaded woman had been what had kept him going throughout the war, she had been the only reason he had tried so hard to keep that stupid Potter boy alive – and the only reason he had continued to live.

Now, however, he was starting to question all that. Whatever it was that he was starting to feel towards Miss Granger was so different, so much more intense than anything he had ever experienced in his life. It was already more powerful than his love to Lily had ever been. And over the weekend, the Dungeon Bat had come to the shocking conclusion that the only reason he had ever been this obsessed with his childhood sweetheart was because she had been one of the few people to ever show an interest in him. Whether Severus liked it or not, he had always been someone to crave the attention and acceptance of others. That had been one of the reason he had joined the ranks of the Dark Lord, after all. Lily had been his friend, she had treated him with respect; and he had mistaken that for love. Looking back, Severus realised that it had never been her that he had been graving; it had been her genuine care for him. The fact that James Potter had also quickly started to show an interest in the redhead had only added to Severus’ determination to make Lily his, of course.

His feelings towards Miss Granger were of a different nature. She had never been his friend; in fact, Severus was pretty much sure that she hated him just as much as the rest of the student body – even if she never really showed it. So it wasn’t her continued affection he desired. No, he wanted her. He wanted to run his calloused fingers through her voluminous brown locks, he wanted to listen to her babbling on for hours about some random boring topic, he wanted to hold her and sleep next to her like they had done in his office. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t striving to possess a woman, but rather to give himself to her – and it was driving him insane. Even forgetting the fact that she was his student and personal apprentice, it still made Severus feel weak and vulnerable.

The half-blood sighed before stepping out of the shower and drying himself off with a towel. He took his time with the rest of his morning routine, but it didn’t take long before he found himself in his classroom with his first period pupils, the second-year Gryffindors and Slytherins. And unfortunately, it only took a blink of an eye before his young students were replaced by the seven-years – with Hermione Granger being on time for the first time in weeks.

Severus noticed her small frame entering the cold classroom instantly. She looked the same as always – her brown mane was pulled back into a classic Dutch braid and her spick and span uniform was topped off with her polished Head Girl badge. Yet somehow, the sight of her gave him butterflies in his stomach. The young woman must have noticed his intense gaze as she gave him a quick but radiant smile before hurrying to her usual seat in the front row. The Potions professor would have lied if he had said that that small gesture didn’t make his dark heart jump a little.

Staggered by his inner turmoil, he frowned as he waited for the class to settle down. As soon as the last chitchat faded away, he made his way towards the front of the classroom. “Today –“ Severus let out a small cough, trying to get rid of the sudden lump in his throat. “Today, you will be brewing Doxycide. Now, as you all know, this specific potion has the purpose of temporarily stunning Doxies. These fairy-like creatures are common household pests, so this remedy will likely prove useful for each and every one of you at some point. As anyone knows, these beasts are –“ He could feel the Gryffindor Princess’ eyes follow every single one of his movements. “Um … bad.”

The little slip-up resulted in instant turmoil coming from the students. The former Death Eater’s eyes grew big and he tried hard to mask his own surprise as there was loud chatter coming from the rather shocked teenagers. Never in his entire career had he tripped over his own tongue like this before! Not knowing how to handle this situation, he just muttered a quick “The required ingredients can be found in the supply cupboard. You may get started.” before disappearing into his office, his long black robes whirling up. Was there any way his day could get even worse?

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Snape waited an extra ten minutes after the Clock Tower stroke the small bell signalling the end of that period before emerging from his office again, making sure to give the students enough time to finish up their potions, clean their workspace and leave. As he entered the dark dungeon classroom, he scrunched up his large nose at the foul smell of the Doxycide. While he had become inured to most smells over the years, he still couldn’t stand the black coloured solution’s stench.

The black-haired man made his way to his wooden desk. As he was about to sit down to order the countless parchment papers spread across the table, a soft voice resonated through the room, “Professor?”

Startled, Severus spun around. Standing on the doorstep, there was Miss Granger. Her heavy school bag swinging from her delicate shoulders, she was holding another two or three books in her arms. Over the course of the lesson, some of her locks had become undone and were now framing her freckled face nicely. Biting her bottom lips, she gave him a quick grin. “Oh, I’m sorry, Sir! I didn’t mean to take you by surprise.”

“Miss Granger, I …” The Potion Master was at a loss for words. He tried hard to ignore his beating heart as he was frantically searching for something to say – never before had he been struggling for words in front of a student.

When he didn’t give an answer, the girl continued, “Oh, well, I would like to apologise for ambushing you like this, but after what happened last Friday, I really feel like we should talk.”

“Fuck!” Severus thought. “Now she will accuse me of being a bloody pervert! What kind of teacher falls asleep hugging a student, anyways?! You should have known better, Severus! She will probably report you to that duffer of a headmaster and demand to become another professor’s apprentice. The whole school likely already knows about that little slumber party, what were you –“

“Thank you.”

The Dungeon Bat was taken aback. “Wh- what?”

The witch’s cheeks were starting to blush. “I would like to thank you, Sir. What you did for me was more than kind. The way you defended and comforted me … I cannot express my appreciation enough.” She flashed him another shy smile.

The Potions professors could only stare at Granger, his mouth slightly agape. “So … you are not going to switch to another professor?” He asked, the disbelief in his voice clearly audible.

The brunette laughed nervously. “No, of course not,” she answered as she fiddled with the cuticle of her right middle finger. “I would also like to apologise for my behaviour over the past couple of weeks. I just … overreacted, I guess.” Severus became even more flustered as she gave him another one of her charming smiles before furling her eyebrows and looking to the ground.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, during which the wizard didn’t allow himself to breathe. Could it really be that she was thankful for his actions? Perhaps she didn’t dislike him after all? While Snape would never be able to allow himself to give into his irrational emotions, of course, he let himself believe for a split second that maybe, just maybe, the two of them could become something like friends instead. “Don’t be stupid!” The teacher growled to himself. “She may not hate you, but she still thinks of you as nothing more than a codger.” Or did she? Overwhelmed by his inner conflict, he just had to know the witch’s true feelings.

Meeting her hazel eyes with his, the Dungeon Bat used his Legilimency skills to nonverbally and wandlessly delve into the smart Gryffindor’s mind. As soon as he entered, he was amazed – he had never experienced such an extraordinary brain before. He didn’t have time to enjoy it, though, as he was in a hurry to search for any thoughts concerning his person. Once he found them, however, he was stunned – there was not the least bit of hatred or disgust. Instead, Severus was rushing through a vortex of muddled memories.

First, he found himself in his own classroom more than six years ago, watching a slightly younger version of himself hold his typical introductory speech in front of a bunch of 11-year-old Slytherins and Gryffindors. Looking around, he soon spotted a bushy-haired, buck-toothed girl. Concentrating on her, he was able to feel the astonishment and admiration radiating from her.

The next memory seemed to be a couple of years younger, located yet again in the dungeon classroom. He saw himself aiding to a hurt Neville Longbottom lying on the ground after what seemed to have been another botched brewing attempt. Standing amongst the crowd of students gathered around the scene, a fourth-year Hermione Granger was looking at the two of them with both worry and fondness in her eyes. To Severus’ surprise, the latter seemed to be directed at both of them equally. He didn’t have a lot of time to think about this, however, as the image vanished before his own eyes.

The last distinct memory was only a few months old, taking place in a suburban city somewhere in Muggle England. A casually dressed Miss Granger was sitting on a small twin bed situated in what seemed to be her bedroom. To the Potion Masters surprise, the room was arranged in various shades of green. Stepping closer to the young woman, he was able to see that she was bent over a piece of parchment paper. Upon closer inspection, the wizard realised that it was a letter from Hogwarts – an application for the apprenticeship programme, to be more exact. He watched as she used a small beige quill to fill in “Professor Severus Snape” in her neat handwriting next to the words “Desired Tutor”. Looking at her makeup-free face, his breath was taken away when he saw her grin broadly, seemingly filled with excitement. Shocked, Severus slipped back into reality.

“Is everything okay, Sir?” Hermione asked concerned, unaware that her privacy had just been invaded.

The former Death Eater gulped. “Yes, Miss Granger. Everything is quite alright.” And when the young woman smiled at him this time, he couldn’t help but smile back at her. Perhaps they could become friends, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally – I am able to update! I’m currently on my Easter break and I only have about two months left before I’m completely done with school, how exciting! I am not sure if I will be able to upload anything during that time, but I will try my best :-) How did you enjoy this chapter?


	13. Dressed Up Figures And Undressed Souls

The remainder of the month went by in a breeze and looking back, the Potions professor realised that it had been the happiest time of his life. Severus still felt a bit uneasy about his feelings towards Miss Granger, of course, so much so that he even promised himself to never act on them. Backpaddling on the thought that the two of them could become friends (after all, a teacher and a student becoming too close would always be weird, regardless of the circumstances), he decided to admire his beloved from afar while trying to act like his normal mean self. In a bid to distance himself from his crush and her enticing charms, Snape would restrict their private lessons to the two mandatory times a week and made sure to drop a nasty remark here and there – even though they somehow never seemed as harsh. It didn’t help, however, that the young woman seemed unfazed by all of this; she would still always show up to their meetings beaming at the Potion Master’s face. So at the end of the day, he still couldn’t help but experience almost juvenile-like excitement and euphoria. She liked him, too! Granted, the brunette wasn’t in love with him or anything, but even just the fact that his new object of affection liked him on a platonic level made the wizard feel all kinds of ways. As a result, his behaviour seemed to change. Suddenly, he found himself softly humming as he made his way through the castle’s countless corridors and even chuckle at his colleagues’ lousy attempts at jokes at the dinner table every once in a while. He also caught himself daydreaming about the Gryffindor Princess more often but he didn’t mind anymore. Instead, he chose to quietly enjoy all of these new-found emotions.

As for Miss Granger, well, she was back to her bubbly, know-it-all self. She showed up for class on time, handed in excellent essays and waved her hand around fiercely trying to be “the chosen one” who got to answer the question. This behaviour also continued during their apprenticeship lessons – the Head Girl would bombard her dark-haired tutor with countless questions about this and that, attempting to extract every single bit of knowledge, howsoever small, from the talented brewer’s brain. Severus couldn’t help but be a tad bit amused by her eagerness to learn. He was still trying to maintain his reputation as the snarky, greasy-haired git of the dungeons, of course, so on the rare occasions when he actually answered one of her questions, he would do so in his typical scoffing fashion. In reality, however, he was delighted by their seemingly one-sided conversations. He was fascinated by the way his love interest’s mind appeared to work as well as the huge range of topics she was interested in. After years of unsuccessfully searching for a suitable conversational partner to have intellectually stimulating discussions with, he finally found one – and in a member of the idiotic trio at that!

On one particular Thursday, the day before Halloween to be exact, the Head of Slytherin found himself in the cold and dimly lit Potions classroom, brewing yet another one of Madam Pomfrey’s last-minute orders; unfortunately, the matron had apparently not taken his elaborate lecture about ordering often needed potions a few weeks in advance to heart. Working side by side with his young apprentice, they prepared a batch of Antidote to Common Poisons and a few phials filled with Laxative Potion respectively.

Just as Snape was rummaging through his storage room looking for lavender essence, he heard his student speak up. “While everyone knows that the headmaster is a – for the lack of a better word – _special_ character, I must say I am still a bit dumbfounded by this announcement,” her melodic voice resonated from the ancient stone walls. “Having spent the better part of my childhood in the Muggle world, I am familiar with the practice, of course. But all those scary things, those creatures that Muggles dress up as – most of them actually exist in the wizarding world! So why should we as witches and wizards dress up for Halloween? I just find that quite bizarre and …”

The former Death Eater finally found the little ampoule he had been searching for and returned to his workstation as the teenager rambled on. He obviously knew what she was talking about. Just this morning at breakfast, Dumbledore had suddenly announced that this year’s Hallowe’en Feast would come with a little twist: It would be a fancy dress party Muggle style and everyone attending was expected to show up wearing a costume. Snape groaned at the thought of it. This year, the old man was just implementing one silly rule after another. Sometimes, the experienced teacher believed that the headmaster came up with all of his crazy antics with the sole purpose of annoying his younger colleague. 

“Anyways,” his protégée finished her babbling. “What will you go as, Sir?”

Severus, who was in the process of measuring out the correct amount of Honeywater for his potion, stopped dead in his tracks and looked at the young woman with a stone-cold expression. “I beg your pardon?” he snarled.

Her hazel eyes turned big. “Oh, um, I’m talking about the Hallowe’en Feast, Professor,” she stuttered sheepishly. “I was just wondering what your costume will be.”

“Costume? Miss Granger, am I really to believe that you would be stupid enough to assume that I, Severus Snape, Potion Master and Head of Slytherin, would take part in such a display of foolishness?!”

The pale-skinned man could practically see the witch’s confidence crumble before his very eyes and he would have lied if he said it that didn’t make him feel tiny bit bad. After frantically searching for something to say for a few moments, Hermione’s eyes dropped to the floor. “Of course not, Sir,” she mumbled. “My apologies …” 

The little know-it-all quickly turned her attention back to her project and so Snape did the same, trying hard to ignore the slight sting he felt in his chest. After working in silence for a while, he finished his concoction and began looking for the little piece of parchment paper that Poppy had written her order down on, wanting to double check if he had prepared the correct amount. Following a one or two minute search, he finally found it on his student’s side of the desk. When the wizard went to pick it up, however, he noticed a small dark red dot on it. 

Confused, he turned to face his apprentice and ask her about it when he noticed what appeared to be a fair amount of blood smeared all across the girl’s chapped lips and chin. Severus had observed her nervous lip biting habit in the past, of course; she would do it subconsciously whenever she was anxious or scared. But he had never seen it get so bad to the point where she would make herself bleed like this. He couldn’t help but feel guilty; it must have been his unkind reply that caused it.

“Miss Granger,” he muttered softly. When she looked up in surprise, he handed her the white handkerchief he always carried in the left pocket of his cloak. “You are bleeding.”

He saw her hastily bringing her right hand up to her face before starring in disbelief at the shiny red liquid that now covered her fingertips. Not giving her the chance to speak, he said, “When I was just a mere child growing up in Muggle England, Miss Granger, Halloween was not yet what it is today. It did exist, yes, but the act of dressing up and having little get-togethers was not that wide-spread yet.”

Walking past her to the table, Snape picked up a small blade and started cutting a few sprouts of Agrimony into small pieces. “However, I do distinctly recall one time when the town I was living in announced that it would host a celebration in the town centre, complete with costumes and all kinds of entertaining activities. Rather untypical for that dirty hellhole, really …” He sighed. “So I spent the whole day getting ready, gathering supplies for my costume from all around the neighbourhood and borrowing makeup from my mother. After hours of work, I had finally finished creating my ensemble and was about to leave, excited for the hours of fun to come, when my father came home from a day at the bar.”

The Potion Master looked up, meeting the gaze of his pupil. Her expression had confusion written all over it. “My father was not a kind man, Miss Granger. I am afraid that I take after him quite a lot when it comes to having anger issues.” His lips formed a thin line. “He was especially not fond of anything magical. He despised my mother and I for our abilities, calling us freaks, monstrosities. When he saw that I was dressed up as a wizard, he lost it. He tore apart my carefully crafted costume before my very eyes and that night I received the worst beating of my life as my mother just passively watched. It was so bad that I was not able to go to school for two weeks after that.”

Hermione gasped in shock. “That’s terrible! I-, I … I am so sorry, Sir.” Her voice was barely a whisper and Severus thought he could see tears forming in her eyes.

He waved off her concern with a simple gesture. “That was a long time ago, Miss Granger,” the pale-skinned man said seemingly nonchalantly, but his trembling hands gave him away as he added the shredded plant to the cauldron before him. “However, I feel like it is understandable that ever since that day, I have taken a dislike to this particular festivity. And while being one of the teachers at this school made me feel compelled to take part in the yearly feast so far, I have decided to allow myself to not participate this time.”

What followed was silence. With his apprentice apparently at a loss for words, Snape continued to diligently prepare the green-coloured potion. He knew that he probably shouldn’t have shared this private information with his student. But for some reason it was just so easy to open up to her, to share his painful memories with her.

It was only after he had finished the magical mixture and went to grab several crystalline phials to fill it into that the Gryffindor Princess spoke up. “It is certainly not my place to speak about your awful experiences or offer any solutions, Sir. But perhaps tomorrow is your one chance to gain the experience you were so wrongfully robbed of.”

Not knowing what to answer, the Dungeon Bat remained quiet.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Even though this was now her seventh time experiencing this event, Hermione still couldn’t help but be amazed as she entered the Great Hall. Like every year, the huge room had been decorated in great detail for the Hallowe'en Feast. A few dozen black cauldrons stuffed with big lollipops as well as giant pumpkins filled with candles and candy were distributed throughout the room. Looking up at the Enchanted Ceiling, she could see the crystal-clear night sky with seemingly endless stars sparkling in the distance. Flying in and out of low-hanging black clouds, live bats and flaming orange streamers were swooping over the long tables filled with massive amounts of food and drinks: Devilled eggs and butternut squash soup, candy apples and carrot cake, butterbeer and gillywater, roasted turkey legs and fish pie. There was even an apple bobbing station in one corner.

The one thing that stood out the most, however, was admittedly the people’s attire. Students and staff alike were dressed in various costumes, some magical and some obviously Muggle-made. In the sea of creepy clowns and heavily made-up princesses, Hermione was able to spot Lavender Brown standing in a secluded nock, dressed as a gigantic pink and baby blue cupcake, flirting with a six-year Hufflepuff boy wearing a cheap one-piece skeleton suit. Sitting at the edge of the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy could be seen in an exquisite Victorian era gown, seemingly disgusted at the way his two friends Crabbe and Goyle, who were dressed as a mummy and a pirate respectively, were stuffing their faces with black pudding, roasted potatoes and mince pie.

The know-it-all made her way to the Gryffindor table, making sure to say hi to Luna Lovegood as she walked past her. The Ravenclaw witch was wearing an unidentifiable mixture of different patterned cloths and a wide array of flashy accessories which was probably meant to represent some strange creature no one had ever heard of but her. After fighting her way through the crowd, the brunette finally reached her friends.

“Bloody hell, Hermione!” Ron exclaimed, waving his fork and the piece of Beef Wellington impaled on it at her. He was dressed as an Auror. “You look smokin’ hot! You’re a sexy kitten or what?” He flashed her a crooked smile. The young woman cringed at her friend’s lousy and rather vulgar attempt at flirting – it seemed as though he still hadn’t got the memo that she wasn’t interested in him in that way. 

It was true, however, that she was dressed as a cat. After taking the longest time to decide on a costume, Hermione had spent the better part of her afternoon getting ready for the feast. Throwing her outfit together from scratch, she had put on a tight-fitting, long-sleeved body and paired it with fishnet stockings and a pair of high-waisted faux leather shorts – all in black, of course. She had then used her magic skills to transfigure a pair of fuzzy black socks into a headband with feline ears attached to it and an old scarf into a tail. To top of her outfit, she had added a black lace-trimmed collar and high-heeled over-the-knee boots. Her makeup was kept simple with only some basic pencil eyeliner strokes across her face to mimic a cat’s primary features and as for her hair, well, she had just let it do its own wild thing. Granted, the outfit she was wearing was a lot more revealing than what the Head Girl would normally go for, but for some reason she didn’t even care tonight. She thought her look was fierce and it made her feel powerful somehow.

Ignoring her pasty-skinned friend’s goggling eyes, she smiled at the couple seated next to him. Harry was dressed as a noble king, cheap plastic crown and all, and Ginny, who was sitting on his lap, was wearing a scarecrow costume. She greeted them and they all chatted for a bit but for some reason something appeared a bit off with her best friend; the redhead seemed somewhat distracted. Not wanting to make a scene in front of everyone, Hermione made a mental note to ask her about it later.

Turning her attention to the table filled with food before her, the young woman’s mouth started to water. Before she helped herself to anything though, she threw a glance at the High Table. A quick scan of the people seated at it later, she had to suppress her laughter. Sitting on the large golden chair in the table’s middle, Dumbledore instantly stood out in what was apparently a life-size replica of his favourite candy, sherbet lemon. Sitting next to the headmaster, Professor McGonagall was sporting a kind of toned-down, more age-appropriate Snow White costume, which made her look surprisingly adorable. Professor Vector and Professor Babbling were both dressed up as Cleopatra, Madam Hooch had put on her favourite Quidditch team’s uniform and Professor Sprout was – surprise, surprise – some sort of plant. A zombie Professor Flitwick could be seen conversing with Professor Sinistra, who was dressed up as a stereotypical burgular, and Hagrid was wearing a painfully small Popeye costume. Professor Trelawney was a mouse, Professor Burbage a gumdrop machine for some reason and Lupin a dog – the last one made her giggle yet again. Only one person was missing: the Potion Master. Hermione couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. She had known that he probably wouldn’t show up but she'd still had some hope.

The Head Girl spent the next hour or so devouring Hogwarts’ finest food and conversing with her house mates, almost forgetting about her tutor being absent from the feast. Finally leaning back with a full stomach, she subconsciously stuck her hands in the pockets of her shorts. 

“What the –“ Stunned, she pulled out a tiny piece of parchment paper. Opening it under the table, out of the view of her neighbours, she read the short note.

_Entrance hall, now._

Hermione instantly knew whose neat handwriting that was. She had to give it to him, sneaking a message into the very clothing she was wearing without her noticing required skill and she was definitely impressed. Excusing herself from the table under the pretence of having to use the bathroom, she quickly left the large hall through the tall double doors, opening them up just enough to allow her to slip through.

Once in the Front Hall, she glanced around but saw no one. Taking one more step into the room, the sound of her heel hitting the stone floor echoing from the walls, the know-it-all jolted when she suddenly saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. She whipped around just in time to see the half-blood emerge from behind the Slytherin house point hourglass. Looking at his haggard face, she could have sworn that she saw his dark eyes go wide for a second as they wandered over her body.

“Professor Snape,” she said, a bit out of breath.

“Miss Granger, you are … a cat?” The female could hear the disbelief in his voice and for some reason it made her chuckle.

“Well yes, Sir, it’s my costume!” She frowned as she eyed his attire. “But I can see that you stuck with your decision not to dress up.”

“That is not entirely true, Miss Granger.”

The brunette raised her eyebrows. “I don’t think I understand. You look the same as you always do, Sir.”

She could see her teacher take a deep breath before he did something that she was sure no one had even seen him do: He flashed her a big smile. Hermione let out an audible gasp of astonishment. At first, she was too shocked to do anything but stare directly at him. Snape’s smile seemed a bit unnatural and almost forced but his student still had to admit that it made him look a lot younger and less stern. This in turn made something stir deep inside her but she chose to ignore that for now.

It was only after a few moments that she noticed something odd about his teeth. His two upper incisors seemed a bit out of place. They were quite long, almost as if they were fangs. Combined with his long black robes, that kind of made him look like a – 

“You are dressed up as a vampire!” the Gryffindor Princess spit out. When Slytherin’s Head of House gave a curt nod in response, she felt a rush of excitement run through her entire body. He had actually done it! Severus Snape had dressed up at her suggestion! Hermione knew that she was about to push her luck hard, but she was just so happy that she couldn’t possibly control her emotions. With one big leap, she closed the distance between them and threw her arms around the Potion Master.

“Happy Halloween, Professor!” she rejoiced as she buried her head deep into the black cloth covering his broad chest.

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He could feel the warmth radiating from her body which was pressed against his tightly. He could smell the fruity scent of her favourite shampoo coming from her voluminous locks as they tickled his beaked nose. He could hear her slightly accelerated breathing, his arms which were wrapped around her petite torso rising just a little at every breath. He could see a small birthmark, almost invisible, situated at the nape of her neck. And for just a moment, the grim wizard allowed himself to melt into Miss Granger’s hug, his dark eyes closed shut.

Severus Snape was doomed and he knew it – but at this exact moment, he did not care one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do not think that this story has been abandoned! I know that I went a really, really long time without updating it but honestly life just got in the way. I’ve been busy with graduating, moving, travelling … But at the end of the day, this story is my little baby and I am determined to finish it (even if it’ll take me decades lol)! I will try to update a little bit more regularly in the future though, pinky promise!
> 
> This scene might not fit 100 % into the story, but the image of Severus showing off his vampire teeth just came into my mind one day and I really wanted to incorporate it somehow :-P I still hope that you enjoyed this chapter, it took me several days to get it done in a way that I was satisfied with.


	14. Can You Keep A Secret, Professor?

It was late at night and Severus was in a splendid mood as he made his way through one of the school’s deserted corridors. Just a few hours earlier, his house’s Quidditch team had absolutely smashed those stupid little Gryffindors he despised so much. 60 to 190 points – he still marvelled at that superb score. Finally, after all those years, his beloved Slytherins were on their way to take home Hogwarts’ Inter-House Quidditch Cup again! He couldn’t help but smirk as he thought of Potter’s shocked facial expression when Draco Malfoy had caught the Snitch right before the Chosen One’s eyes. After the game, the Potion Master had spent the rest of his night harvesting Sopophorous beans from his secret acreage hidden deep within the Forbidden Forest and was now on his way back to his chambers. Ah yes, today had been a good day!

Snape was just about to turn the corner when he heard the loud creak of a door echoing through the nocturnal quiet. Maybe it was a remnant of his spying days or maybe it was the teacher inside him ready to catch some unsuspecting students breaking the rules, but he immediately stopped dead in his tracks and squeezed his body against the wall before risking a stealthy look into the corridor to his right. At first, he couldn’t see much as the luminescence coming through the open door situated a few metres in front of his position was too bright; it took his eyes a second or two to adjust. It was only then that he realised that the light was actually coming from the Hospital Wing – funny, he hadn’t even noticed that he had wandered into the Hospital Tower. Maybe that shouldn’t have come as a surprise, however, considering that his mind had been all over the place lately.

Turning his attention back to the scene before him, he could make out Madame Pomfrey standing in the doorway, seemingly speaking to someone out of the wizard’s sight. Severus furrowed his brow. Poppy normally had a zero-tolerance policy when it came to her sleeping schedule, one that she defended with all kinds of nasty hexes as the Dungeon Bat had had to experience first-hand. The only exception was, of course, in case of emergency but in that instance every one of the school’s teachers would have been informed. And he knew for a fact that Albus’ Patronus would have easily found him no matter where he was, even deep down in the woods.

Trying to get a better look, Severus scooted a bit closer, making sure not to step out of the protective cover provided by the shadows, just as the matron moved aside to let her conversation partner exit the Hospital Wing. To say that he was surprised when he saw Miss Granger set foot in the dark corridor would have been an understatement. He hadn’t seen his love interest since they had shared that quick hug in the Entrance Hall, the Head Girl also hadn’t attended the game earlier. She was dressed in what seemed to be a light grey bathrobe over a pair of plaided red cotton pyjamas, her brown hair pulled into a messy ponytail at the nape of her neck – a drastic difference to the risky Halloween costume she had worn just a few days earlier. The Gryffindor exchanged a few more words with the elderly healer before turning around and walking off into the direction of the Grand Staircase, her cloth slippers audibly dragging across the stone floor.

The former Death Eater waited until the door to the infirmary closed before moving to follow his apprentice. The thoughts in his mind were running wild. Why was she here, at this time of day at that?! Had she somehow gotten injured? Had she contracted some sort of disease? Panic arouse inside of him before Severus forced himself to calm down. No, he would have been told if his personal apprentice had become sick or hurt. Also, Poppy would never discharge a patient in the middle of the night. So why was she there? 

He caught up to her petite figure quickly. “Miss Granger,” he growled, causing the young witch to jump in surprise. “What were you doing at the Hospital Wing at this hour? It is almost 1 o’clock in the morning, so you are both outside of visiting hours and past curfew!”

“Merlin, keep your voice down or someone will hear you!” Severus didn’t even have time to get angry about being shushed by a student (or to blush at his crush gripping his arm tightly) before his apprentice pulled him into an empty classroom near them. Using her wand, she locked the door and casted the Muffliato Charm for privacy; how the witch knew a spell that he himself invented decades earlier was beyond him but she spoke up before he had the chance to ask.

“My apologies, Sir.” She looked at him with a slight frown on her face. “But I simply could not risk anyone eavesdropping on us.”

The Potion Master snarled. “I demand to know the meaning of this right now, Miss Granger!”

After giving him a calculated look, the young woman tilted her head as she asked, “Can you keep a secret, Professor?”

“Keep a secret?” Snape almost felt as though he had been insulted. “I was a Death Eater and double agent for longer than you have been alive for, you foolish girl!”

Hermione ignored his little emotional outburst. “I will take this as a yes.” She walked over to one of the wooden tables in the front row and leant against it. “My visit to the infirmary did not concern myself.”

The wizard just stared at her, waiting for her to continue. “Rather, I was there to act as sort of a moral support for Ginny.”

“Miss Weasley.” It was a statement, not a question.

“Yes,” the know-it-all confirmed nevertheless. “I am sure that you have noticed her absence at today’s game. You see, her and Harry have been an item for a while now. But it seems as though they have recently had a little mishap.”

The Potions professor was growing more and more impatient. Potter and anything concerning him was his least favourite subject. “A mishap of what sort?” he snapped.

“Well …” She was seemingly searching for the right words. Snape thought he could see her face turn red a little. “A mishap as they became more intimate. Carelessness in the heat of passion, if you will.”

The Head of Slytherin’s eyes turned big and he could feel his cheeks starting to burn. “You mean …” He could not bring himself to say it.

Granger nodded. “Ginny got pregnant. She obviously freaked out, not knowing what to do. So after she confided in me, I set up a secret appointment with Madam Pomfrey.” She did not continue, looking at him as though he should know where this story is going.

After a few seconds of Severus just staring back at her blankly, she lost her patience. “The pregnancy was terminated.”

“ **WHAT?** ”

The teenager just rolled her eyes. “Come on, Professor! Don’t act like you aren’t aware that things like this happen at our school. Every year, there’s at least half a dozen of girls seeking Madam Pomfrey’s assistance in such matters.”

“No, I did not know that!” he barked back. “What do the girl’s parents have to say to all of this?! And Potter?”

Hermione offered him a sad smile. “He doesn’t know.”

“What?!” The Dungeon Bat exclaimed appalled. “How could that idiot not know he has impregnated a fellow student?” 

“Ginny just never told him. I advised her to do so, of course, but she did not want to. And at the end of the day, it is her body and her choice. All I can do is be there for her as a friend.” The Gryffindor crossed her arms. “It is probably for the best anyways. Harry would have tried to convince her to continue with the pregnancy for sure and they are just not ready for that kind of responsibility. I mean, neither of them has even finished their education yet! And while Harry might have brought about Voldemort’s downfall, he cannot even keep up with his schoolwork, let alone take care of a child.”

Severus was taken aback by the maturity in her voice. “She’s probably right,” he thought. He didn’t even want to imagine having to deal with another Potter brat in eleven years’ time; just the idea of it made him shutter. Still, the thought of two students being sexually active made him highly uncomfortable.

“And so that's the reason why I was at the Hospital Wing,” he could hear his apprentice conclude.

“Very well.” He let out an audible sigh. “10 points from Gryffindor.”

“Excuse me?!” the brunette bellowed.

“Miss Granger, as the school’s Head Girl, you should lead by example. Wandering around the castle after curfew is a punishable offence.” He smirked. “Regardless of the circumstances.” It was painfully obvious that it was an attempt at lightening the mood.

The brightest witch of her age threw her hands up in frustration. “You really are something, Professor Snape! I guess I better get going before you deduct even more points – for ridiculous reasons, I might add!” She removed her magical guards and made for the door.

“One last thing, Miss Granger.”

A head of full brown locks turned to him. “Sir?”

“Why would you tell me such damning information willingly?”

“Oh, I don’t believe you would ever tell anyone, Professor. You would have to admit to having conversations with your apprentice in private, after all.” And with one last cheeky grin, she disappeared through the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mainly meant to tie up the little side story we had going on but I also think it shows our protagonists becoming closer and more trusting towards each other. Hope you enjoyed!


	15. Where Your Priorities Lie

“All I am saying is that I really don’t think that you should be too hard on her, Sir. She is still struggling with being so far away from her family for the majority of the year,” Hermione said as the pair made their way up one of the narrow staircases connecting the remote dungeon to the rest of the castle. “She’s very sensitive, you know.”

Severus snorted at his apprentice defending the Hufflepuff student; she took her job as Head Girl just too seriously sometimes. “I do believe that it is Miss Zeller’s third year at this school now. Sensitive or not,” he spat the word out in disgust. “It’s about time that she gets a hold of herself. I already expect nothing from her and yet she still manages to disappoint me every single time she enters my classroom.” The brunette shook her head in disagreement as she gave him a disapproving look but the former Death Eater thought that he could see the corners of her mouth lift a little.

Reaching the Grand Staircase, their conversation shifted to something more academic: an interesting “Potions Weekly” article they had both read. It really seemed as though the ice between the teacher and his student had broken even more ever since their little night-time encounter at the Hospital Wing. Over the past two weeks, Miss Granger had ventured into the dark depths of the dungeons on a daily basis; once or twice, she had even gone two times in a single day. Splitting their time between the professor’s office and the Potions classroom, the two masterminds had prepared assignments, maintained Poppy’s ever-dwindling medicine stock and even discussed the newest scientific achievements from all around the wizarding world. Whenever there’d been time, Severus would try to quench his apprentice’s thirst for knowledge by teaching her about exotic potions that were way too complex to even be mentioned in the regular syllabus. And while the wizard had been trying hard to keep up his guard in front of his love interest, Hermione had been starting to share more and more personal details during each exchange – like the time she had opened up about the pressure put on her from a very young age by her dentist parents to live the healthiest lifestyle possible. “Can you believe that I never had a bite of chocolate before my very first ride on the Hogwarts Express? That was the first time that I’d been without their supervision. I felt like I had committed a criminal act!” 

Deeply engaged in their discussion about a particularly fascinating part of the article, the school’s Potion Master and its Head Girl jumped in unison when the old large door leading to the Great Hall was swung open just a few feet ahead of them. Out came three familiar figures: A tall and lanky freckled ginger and another smaller boy with untidy jet-black hair who had his arm slung loosely around the figure of a petite redhead.

“Oh!” Miss Granger let out a small gasp as she recognised her peers. “I am sorry, Professor, but I need to go now. I think that I will have to study tonight since I have the feeling that there is going to be a surprise exam tomorrow in Charms but I’ll try to stop by in the morning before breakfast to drop off those essays I corrected last week, if that would be alright?”

All Severus could do was to give her a curt nod before he watched her run off after her idiotic friends.

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“Hey, you guys! Wait for me!” Hermione greeted her fellow Gryffindors with a big smile when they finally turned around to face her. With a few more bounding strides, she caught up to them. “Where are you going? I thought we were having lunch together today.” It took her a few moments to catch her breath. “You know, I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”

Instead of a response, all she was met with were three blank stares. After several excruciatingly long seconds of awkward silence, it was Harry who spoke up first. “Hermione, lunch ended ten minutes ago. We waited for you for over an hour,” he said softly.

“What?!” It only took the know-it-all once quick look at her trusty wristwatch to realise that the boy was right. “Merlin, I am so sorry! I didn’t notice that it’s already this late …” she muttered perplexed. 

“This is the third time you have stood us up now! What were you even doing that’s more important than your own friends?” Ron’s ears were starting to get red.

“Professor Snape and I were just finishing up some potions that will be used in a demonstration for the second graders on Friday. I am really so sorry, I didn’t think it would take this long!”

“Hermione, you are spending an awful lot of time down there with that git,” Ginny said with a slight pout on her face. “We barely get to see you anymore.”

“Well, I guess it’s true that the apprenticeship is taking up a lot of my time and energy. Together with my duties as Head Girl, I –“

“It just feels like you care a lot more about Snape and his stupid potions than you do about us,” Ron interrupted her, his lips nothing but a thin line.

The young woman’s hazel eyes grew big. “But that’s not true! I love you guys and you know that! I admit that perhaps I’ve been spending a little bit too much time with Professor Snape as part of my studies but I have just been … I guess I didn’t realise that –“

“Yeah, you didn’t realise, just like you never do. With you, it’s always just books and grades.” The youngest Weasley boy snorted. “Let’s go,” he gestured to the other two to follow him as he stormed off in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower. Ginny didn’t even say a word before turning to follow her brother, her gaze pinned to the floor. Harry, however, gave his best friend a quick shoulder squeeze paired with an empathetic look before running off as well. 

Before she knew it, Hermione was all alone. Still in somewhat of a shock, her bottom lip began to quiver and it looked like she was holding back tears as she too wandered off, most likely to seclude herself in the library, unaware of the pair of dark eyes following her every move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter might be short but it is (and will prove) important nevertheless! You wouldn’t believe how much I struggled with this part! I knew the plot I was going for but putting it into words proved extremely difficult for some reason. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and I will try to be fast with the next update. Uni has just been stressing me out a lot :-P


	16. Sit, Drink, Talk

Severus couldn’t help but notice a change in his apprentice’s behaviour over the next couple of days. Unlike her last emotional low, Miss Granger did show up to class, however, she stopped raising her hand and kept her head down working quietly during the majority of the lessons. She also appeared to have changed her regular meal times and whenever she still could not avoid running into her “friends”, she would sit at the opposite end of the long Gryffindor table, eating alone. Sometimes, she would also just skip meals all together. And while she still visited the professor’s office on the daily, her mood had definitely changed as well as she seemed a lot sadder and less carefree than usual. He would try to engage the witch in interesting conversations about potions and the like, but they would all soon fizzle out as she didn’t seem like she wanted to talk. Snape was becoming increasingly irritated. Not only did it hurt him to see his object of affection feel this way, but he also selfishly wanted “his” Hermione back – the one he could spend hours quietly working on potions with, the one that would pester him with countless questions, the one that would flash him a big smile whenever she walked through his door. Now, she was only a shadow of her former know-it-all self and he hated it.

And so, he decided that he had to do something about it.

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Hermione threw her heavy book bag on her king-size bed with a loud grunt. She was feeling extremely frustrated. Not only was she struggling with an especially hard equation that was part of the Arithmancy homework she would have to hand the following week, but she had also been unable to cast a new spell they’d learnt in Defence Against the Dark Arts earlier today. And while it was dinner time now and she was actually feeling quite hungry, she really didn’t feel like going down to the Great Hall and facing her estranged friends. She couldn’t stand the way they stared at her as she walked past them to sit down as far away from them as possible. Perhaps she could go right before the kitchen was about to close and manage to grab a few bites that way. The girl sighed deeply as she gave Crookshanks, who was sleeping at the foot of her bed, a quick cuddle before she walked into her small study, sat down at her overloaded desk and started working on trying to solve that stupid equation.

It must have been about an hour later when her learning was interrupted by an all too familiar tapping noise – and sure enough, there was a little school owl sitting on her window sill. While she wasn’t expecting any mail, especially not at this time of day, she still opened the window and gave the small brown bird a treat before carefully unwrapping a small piece of parchment paper from its left leg. After watching the animal fly away, she returned to her work desk and opened the letter. While the short message was yet again not signed, she immediately recognised the handwriting:

_My office, 10.30 pm._

“That’s weird,” she thought. “Why would he want to see me after curfew?” A few minutes of pondering later, the only reason she could come up with was something forbidden, like dark magic or an illegal potion. The young witch could feel her cheeks starting to burn. While she had never been one to break the rules, the thought of Professor Snape being a, for the lack of a better word, “bad boy” made her feel queasy in all the good ways for some reason. “Stop it, Hermione! That’s Professor Snape you’re thinking of!” she berated herself. But with way too much time left until she was supposed to meet up with her tutor, Hermione’s thoughts started to run wild: Professor Snape showing her a ground-breaking discovery he had just made, Professor Snape sneaking her out of school grounds to bring her to a secret meeting of the wizarding world’s best Potion Masters, Professor Snape’s lips getting dangerously close to hers … Because if the know-it-all was good at something, it was overthinking.

By the time she sneaked out of her tower to make her way down into the dungeons, she had completely forgotten about dinner and Arithmancy; she had been too occupied by her thoughts about the reason for their secret meeting. “Not by thoughts about Professor Snape,” she tried telling herself but she subconsciously knew that she was lying to herself. The student didn’t know where it came from, why her head was suddenly filled with unchaste ideas about her tutor. She was a bit too old to attribute it to pubertal confusion. All she knew is that she admired Professor Snape; he was a well-accomplished Potion Master, one of the smartest yet most mysterious people she had ever met and, if she was honest with herself, not too bad looking either. He was intriguing her and her heart had skipped a beat when she’d read his little note – what would this encounter have in store for her?

It was a long walk from the Head Girl Tower down to the Potions professor’s office but Hermione knew that she wouldn’t get caught; one of the perks of her position was that she knew the patrol schedule as she was sometimes required to aid the teachers and Filch when it came to doing rounds through the school’s countless corridors. Her outfit for the night was a little bit more casual than usual: She was wearing a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, lined slippers and a really thick bright red woollen sweater to protect her from the November cold – after all, Hogwarts was not known for its good insulation. She had debated about changing back into her uniform but decided that the Dungeon Bat couldn’t expect her to be dressed formally if he sets up a meeting to take place after regular school hours.

It felt like an eternity had passed before she finally turned the corner into the corridor in which Professor Snape’s office was located. She knew that she was a few minutes early and she had actually planned to wait them out before knocking on his door, however, to her surprise, the wizard was already waiting for her in the hallway. She could feel her hands get sweaty. “Good evening, Professor,” she said quietly, it was merely a whisper. “Aren’t we going to go inside?”

The former Death Eater mustered her for a second, noticeably surprised by her attire, and the witch promptly started to regret her fashion choice; however, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, he let his voice resonate from the dark stone walls, “No. Tonight, we shall retreat to my private quarters. Follow me.” And before the young woman could get a word in, he had already spun around and was hurrying through the gloomy dungeon maze.

Hermione could feel her chest tighten painfully as she tried to keep up with the man’s long legs. “His private quarters?! What in the name of Merlin is going on?!” the voice inside her head screamed. Sure, she had been in there before but that had been during an emergency situation; she would have never thought that he’d invite her back. Yet again, her own thoughts were threating to overwhelm her but she did not have time to clear her mind as they soon arrived at the portrait marking the entrance to the teacher’s rooms. She heard the wizard mumble something under his breath before watching the painting swing open and immediately felt his hands on her shoulders as he practically pushed her inside. 

Stepping into his sitting room, the Gryffindor Princess instantly felt calmer. She had fallen in love with this place the very second she’d first laid eyes upon it; the countless books lining the tall walls, the interior design and the overall cosy feeling just filled her with joy. If she were to imagine her dream house, it would definitely look something like that.

As soon as she turned around, however, her good mood immediately turned into nervousness again. There he was, Professor Snape, just standing in the corner and starring at her with an expressionless face that made her stomach drop. His presence was looming over her and it somehow made her excited and scared to death at the same time. “You’re not twelve anymore, Hermione, he doesn’t scare you any longer! He’s still the same person you have been spending time with every day for weeks now!” But she just could not help it. Why was she here, what was going to happen? The Head Girl gulped.

“Sit down,” he ordered, pointing at one of the dark purple wing chairs in front of the fireplace – and without thinking, Hermione complied.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

The only thing interrupting the silence was the crackling sound of the fire. Sitting in the other identical chair just a few feet away, Severus watched his apprentice closely. She seemed nervous for some reason; her right leg was bouncing up and down restlessly and she was back to biting her bottom lip mercilessly. Her eyes would not meet his; instead, they were clued to the carpet. But he guessed that he could not blame her since it was an incredibly weird situation. He knew that it was wrong to invite her here, that it would only make their relationship more personal which it definitely should not become. But he just needed to do something and with how inexperienced he was when it came to social interactions, this was the only thing he could come up with.

Snape was still a bit shocked by her look. He knew that students often chose to wear casual clothing after they were done with classes for the day, of course; after all, he had been a student at some point, too. But for some reason, the thought of Miss Granger dressing “normally” from time to time, wearing something other than her school uniform, had never crossed his mind. Sure, he had seen her in her pyjamas at the Hospital Tower as well as that one time he’d walked past her at Grimmauld Place after one of his nightly missions a few years ago and he had also caught a glimpse of her everyday style watching one of her memories while secretly using Legilimency, but this was something else. Her outfit was definitely nothing special by any means, yet it overwhelmed him completely. The way the tight jeans hugged her curves, the way the red of her jumper complimented her complexion – she was effortlessly breath-taking. It took the wizard all of his self-control to not start drooling.

When he’d come up with his plan to help Miss Granger feel better, he hadn’t considered how it would actually all go down and so quite frankly, the awkward silence was intimidating him a bit now. In an attempt to lighten the mood, he wandlessly and nonverbally conjured a silver tray with a large tea pot, two dainty porcelain cups and a plate of biscuits straight from the kitchen. Using his magic to pour the steaming hot liquid into the mugs, he handed her one without a word before sitting the other one down on the small wooden table beside him. The brunette accepted the drink, however, after a few more minutes of silence, Severus noticed that she still hadn’t touched it. “Drink,” he said a little bit too loudly, making the girl jump, but she did end up taking a small sip. His own cup was still left sitting on the side table untouched, where it would remain for the rest of the night.

Taking a few more minutes to gather up his courage, Severus finally managed to squeeze out, “Now talk.” He prayed to the gods that she hadn’t heard the slight crack in his voice.

The young woman looked up, the cup of tea still in her hands, and he could see her brows furrow in confusion. “Pardon?”

The former Death Eater gulped; this wasn’t going well. “Talk,” he repeated hoarsely, starring directly into her honey brown eyes.

“About what, Sir?” He didn’t know when it had started but he actually hated it when she addressed him formally; it just served as a reminder of their teacher-student relationship and how inappropriate his crush really was.

“Your … feelings.”

As expected, the Gryffindor’s jar dropped. “Um –“ But Severus interrupted her quickly, internally starting to panic.

“Miss Granger, I simply cannot work like this! I need an apprentice that is able to dedicate herself completely to the subject of potion brewing and the conflict with your little friends is obviously preventing you from doing so. You leave me with no choice but to do something about it! If I have learnt anything from mainstream literature and cinematography, it’s that women like to solve problems by talking about them. So go ahead.” He knew that he was speaking a little bit too fast but he couldn’t help it. “Talk.”

The witch’s puzzled expression showed just how lost she was for words. “Professor Snape, I don’t –“

“This is probably the only time I will ever say this out loud, Miss Granger, but you are truly an excellent apprentice. I enjoy working with you and if this is what it takes for you to become productive again then please, by all means, speak!”

It was rather fascinating how easily readable she sometimes was; the teacher was practically able to watch her inner debate as a whole array of different emotions washed over the girl’s face. Finally, it felt like it had been forever, she came to a decision. “I mean, I can understand that they feel a bit let down by me but I still don’t think that their reaction was justified,” she mumbled, the slowly dancing fire reflecting in her large eyes.

Severus didn’t say anything and waited until she was ready to continue; he had learnt a long time ago that most people would eventually start to talk just to make the awkward silence go away. “Every single year, during the height of Quidditch season, I barely get to see all three of them. But did I ever complain? No! I understood that that's their passion. I repeatedly put their needs and wants before mine. I came to every single one of their games to support them, to cheer them on, but yet they complained whenever I asked them to join me for a study session at the library. Then as soon as exams roll around I'm suddenly in high demand again …” Barely holding back the tears, her whole body started to shake and the was nothing Snape wanted to do more than to close the short distance between them, to hold her and calm her down like that one night in his office, but he forced himself to stay put.

“I don’t even know how many assignments I have helped them with over the years. Don’t even think that half of the essays they have submitted to you were written by them. I normally take academic integrity really serious, but shit,” Severus eyebrows shot up in surprise at her use of a curse word. “Ron and Harry wouldn’t even have made it past year one if I hadn’t helped them. I practically pushed them through six years of schooling myself and this is the thanks I get?! THEY DIDN’T EVEN CARE ENOUGH TO SPEND TIME WITH ME ON MY BIRTHDAY BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE QUIDDITCH IS MORE IMPORTANT! DID I SAY ANYTHING BACK THEN?!” The petite woman was screaming at this point. “Do you think I enjoyed being pushed into the centre of a war just because I was friends with The Boy Who Lived? Do you think I enjoyed putting my life on the line every single day starting when I was still just a child?! Time after time I saved their asses from certain death and now that the war is over, now that I do not have to worry about this shit anymore, they get mad at me for finally doing what I enjoy?!” By now, her face was covered in tears.

“How dare they fuck me over like this! HOW DARE THEY! It’s like our friendship only exists on their terms. So what I fucking missed lunch with them? Oh yeah, because that totally cancels out the time I got FUCKING TORTURED by that bitch Lestrange; when I was almost killed but did not say a single fucking word because I had to protect them!” Granger let out an agonised whimper before grabbing the left sleeve of her sweater and yanking it up, revealing a horrific scar: There, on the inside of her forearm, the word “MUDBLOOD” was carved into her delicate flesh. The cuts must have been extremely deep as each dark red letter was elevated noticeably from her pale skin.

Without thinking, Severus jumped out of his seat; he was by his beloved’s side in no time. “Bellatrix,” he hissed out under his breath; the witch was lucky that she was already dead because he wouldn't have been nice to her. Kneeling next to the weeping witch, he carefully held her fragile arm in his calloused hand as he examined the trauma using different diagnostic spells. “Why have I never seen this before?!” He had known about the incident at Malfoy Manor, of course, but no one, neither the Order nor the Dark Lord, had ever mentioned that torture had taken place. “Dumbledore should have told me!” The Potion Master could feel himself getting angrier by the second.

Hermione would not look him in the eye. “I don’t think he knows. Nobody knows. I usually cover it up with a charm.”

The Slytherin could feel his heart ache. “This looks bad,” he whispered as everything inside him screamed to go on a murderous rampage. “But I’m sure it could be fixed. We could try an ointment, maybe a potion. If you’d just give me enough time to come up with –“

“No,” she interrupted him, pulling back her arm and covering up her injury with the sleeve of her brightly-coloured pullover. “It’s of no use. She used some type of ancient pure-blood curse so it would never go away. Trust me, I’ve tried everything.” Severus was taken aback by the sudden lack of emotion in her voice. “I’ll just have to live with it. It’s the daily reminder of my real place in the wizarding world … the daily reminder of how worthless the blood running through my veins really is.”

The black-haired man wanted to say something and was desperately searching for the right words but in the end, he stopped himself; nothing would be able to make this situation better. He had seen his fair share of magical injuries over the years and this was definitely one of the worst. If Miss Granger was right, if it was really an ancient curse, there was nothing anyone could do. The fact that she was able to cover it up when needed was already amazing and showed just how incredibly capable she really was. Still looking for a way to comfort his little witch and show sympathy somehow, he carefully placed his hand on hers. He heard her draw a sharp breath upon contact and for a split second, Severus was scared that she would pull away from him. But then, ever so lightly, she squeezed his fingers.

They stayed in that position for a very long time, holding hands in silence as they watched the fire slowly burn out. It wasn’t until there was only a handful of dying embers left that the Potion Master finally spoke up again, however, he hadn’t said anything in so long that he needed to clear his throat first. “I know that nothing could ever replace your friends, Miss Granger, but if you want to then you can come here anytime you want. I have a lot of books that I’m sure you would enjoy and if you ever don’t feel like eating in the Great Hall, the house elves offer rather good room service, too.” Snape’s heart was beating so fast and loud that he was sure all of Scotland could hear. “I wouldn’t really mind your company either. After all, you do seem like the only person in the entire castle that is able to hold an intellectually stimulating conversation for longer than five minutes.”

For the first time tonight, he saw the Gryffindor Princess smile. “I would love that,” she said softly.

The Head of Slytherin couldn’t help but grin back at her. “Great!” he exclaimed without caring whether he sounded a little bit too enthusiastic. “Then let me just jot down the password for you really quick.”

“Are you sure, Professor? I mean, I could just knock!”

Severus chuckled at his apprentice’s shocked expression as he stood up and walked over to his secretary desk. “Miss Granger, I think your position as Head Girl proves that you are more than trustworthy. As long as you promise me that you are over your ‘breaking in and stealing from other people’s private stocks’ phase from five years ago, I think we should be just fine.”

The girl blushed as red as a tomato. “You know that was me?! Oh god, I am so, so sorry, Sir! I –“

“It’s alright. Here,” he said, handing her a small piece of paper. “Come and go as you want, even when I’m not here.”

“I, I –“ The mean professor inside of him still enjoyed seeing a student stammer helplessly. “I don’t even know what to say, Sir. Thank you so much for your offer and for letting me get it all out. I appreciate it, really!”

A few hours later, as he laid alone in bed, Severus could only think of one thing: He never knew that Miss Granger could swear like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for 5,000 hits! <3 <3 <3  
> I am so happy that people seem to enjoy my writing and I want to give a special thank you to all those people that come back every single time to read my new updates! Even though university is taking up all of my time right now, I decided to prepare this extra-long chapter to show my appreciation. Our story will get really interesting really soon, trust me ;-) Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! (And yes, the chapter title was inspired by “Eat, Pray, Love” lol.)


	17. Falling For The Underdog

The following weekend, the Potion Master found himself in a situation that he would have never thought possible – he spent the entire day with a woman.

Despite it being a Saturday, Miss Granger had arrived at his private quarters quite early. While Snape usually woke up long before the rest of the castle, he had never really considered himself a morning person. He normally worked late and slept little, often waking up in a cold sweat after just a few hours due to horrible nightmares. So needless to say, the wizard was rather surprised when his apprentice showed up at his door before the school’s house elves had even started to prepare breakfast. He asked himself if perhaps she was suffering from the same problem as him.

The two of them had been spending a lot of time together over the past week. Ever since he gave his little witch the password to his rooms, she came by even more than before and they often spent their evenings together. Everything inside of him screamed that this was wrong, that they were becoming way too close. But he couldn’t help but feel a rush of ecstasy, almost as if he had taken drugs, run through his entire body every single time she walked into his rooms. He had given her the password in what had been almost a moment of mental aberration and he’d soon started to regret it. He had tried telling himself that the reason for that was that it was inappropriate but deep down he knew that he was scared of rejection; scared that she wouldn’t take him up on the offer and that she would find it creepy and weird. But the next day, when he had come back from teaching the fourth year Slytherins and Gryffindors, he’d found the Muggle-born inside his sitting room, a huge sandwich platter from the kitchen placed on the table in front of her. Snape couldn’t really describe the feeling he’d experienced upon seeing this. On one hand, he had felt massive relief; on the other hand, it had felt almost as though he was a husband coming home after a long day of work to a loving home – something that was completely new to him.

Sometimes, the pair would be working on potions together, and other times, Severus would be sitting at his desk marking essays while the student would curl up on his navy blue sofa as she worked on some homework. Today, however, they were doing what both of them loved the most: reading. The black-haired man was seated in one of his big wing chairs, a copy of his favourite journal “The Practical Potioneer” in his hands, whereas Miss Granger was spread out across the rug in front of him, deeply engrossed in her teacher’s volume of “Hélas, Je me suis Transfiguré Les Pieds” by French wizard Malecrit. Snape had noticed how eager she seemed to get her hands on classics from the wizarding world and he didn’t exactly know how to feel about it – it appeared as though she was trying to make up for the time she’d spent growing up as a Muggle.

They had both been reading in silence for a while when the wizard stumbled across an especially interesting paragraph on the possible uses of Alihotsy in magical antidepressants. Opening his mouth to share this new information with his knowledge-hungry apprentice, he looked up and instantly had to draw a sharp breath. Miss Granger had shifted her position just a few minutes ago and now her grey skirt had ridden up just far enough to reveal her toned thighs as well as the slightest hint of the subtle crease underneath her butt. Severus gulped; it was hard to ignore the way the shadows of the fire burning just a few feet away were dancing across her delicate milky flesh. Why was she wearing her uniform – a uniform with what now suddenly seemed like a ridiculously short skirt – on a day without classes?! For a split second, the thought that she was trying to seduce him crossed his mind but he quickly dismissed that. Never in a million years would Miss Granger be the type of person to try and recreate a scene from a low-budget adult movie. And if he was honest with himself, he would have found her appearance breath-taking even if she was wearing a potato sack.

Having forgotten about what he had originally wanted to say, he blurted out the first thing he could think of. “I do have to say, I find it rather bizarre that Miss Weasley of all people would act in such a manner towards you. I would be terrified to make you even remotely angry if you knew my deepest secret.”

The brunette didn’t even look up. “But that’s not how friendships work.”

“What?” The professor’s brows shot up in surprise.

“A real friend would never betray you just because you’ve had a fight with them,” she said as she pushed herself up into a seated position. The man didn’t know if he was glad or sad that her legs were now covered up again. “A promise is a promise. That fact doesn’t change just because you’re having a disagreement or because you don’t like each other anymore.” Yet again, the former Death Eater was pleasantly surprised by her maturity; it made him feel a tiny bit less like a predator preying on an innocent girl.

“Plus, the real problem is Ron. I love him –“ Severus couldn’t help but feel a slight sting at these words. “But he is just so unpredictable sometimes. And at the end of the day, Ginny will always choose him because he is her brother and Harry will do the same because he is his best friend and because Ginny is his girlfriend. All three of them are on the Quidditch team together and they all share common interests. I’m the odd one out and so if someone has to leave the group, it will always be me.” The pale man was at a loss for words. He wanted to cheer her up somehow, he wanted to tell her that what she was saying was wrong, but he knew that it was the truth. Just like himself, she was and would always be an outsider.

“Anyways,” Miss Granger continued, taking a look at her wristwatch. “I think I have to go. I still want to stop by the library to pick up some books before it closes. Thank you for having me, Professor!” And with that, she stood up, straightened out her clothes and put the book she had been reading back in its place on one of the countless shelves lining the dark room before making her way to the exit.

But just as she was about to disappear through the hole in the wall, she lingered for a second. “Sir?” Snape was taken aback by how nervous she suddenly sounded.

“Yes, Miss Granger?”

The young woman bit her lower lip. “It’s okay if you don’t want to but the other teachers normally address me by my first name when I am alone with them. So perhaps you could do that, too? Only in private, of course.”

Severus gave her a calculated look. It probably sounded silly, especially after he had already given her access to his private quarters, but he still was somewhat afraid of getting too close to her. Wasn’t using her first name a bit too far? But at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel a warm sensation spread through his body at her request.

“Alright … Hermione.”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

“Come on, Hermione, I know you’re in there! Open the door!”

The brightest witch of her age was surprised to hear what sounded like frantic knocking as she was climbing up the stairs leading to her Head Girl suite. It wasn’t long before she arrived at the top and discovered her ginger-haired best friend banging on her door. “Hermione, please! I know you’re really mad at me but can we please just talk about it?”

“Ginny?” she said, making the youngest Weasley jump in surprise. “What are you doing?”

“Oh, Hermione!” the girl exclaimed before running towards her friend at the speed of light and hugging her so hard that the two of them almost tumbled over. “I’m so, so sorry! I know I treated you like crap and for a stupid reason, too! I don’t know even know what got into me, I’m just so stressed and I let Ron get the better of me! Harry is sorry, too, but Ron is still mad so he feels like he is sort of caught in the middle and –“

Hermione took a step back and offered the young woman a smile. “Ginny, it’s alright. No hard feelings, okay?” She was still upset about how she had been treated, of course, but she had learnt a long time ago that sometimes being happy was more important than being right.

“Hermione, you are truly too good for this world!” the sixth-year called out before moving in for another suffocating embrace. The brunette couldn’t help but chuckle; war hero or not, at the end of the day she was just a girl and a girl needed her best friend.

Now that their stupid fight was finally behind them, it didn’t take long before the two females fell back into their old ways. They soon found themselves on the Head Girl’s bed, with countless Muggle nail supplies spread around them, talking about this and that. However, the newest Hogwarts gossip wasn’t really able to awaken Hermione’s enthusiasm like it usually does. Something had been occupying her mind for a few days now and it took her a long time before she finally mustered up the courage to tell the younger girl. “Hey, Gin …” For some reason, her mouth felt extremely dry all of the sudden.

“Yes?” The redhead was busy painting the tiny nail of her right little toe in a pastel pink colour, biting her tongue and furrowing her brows in concentration.

“Um …” Hermione had no idea how to bring up the subject. “I need your advice about something.”

It was only then that her friend looked up. “What’s going on?”

“So …” The know-it-all took a shaky breath, deciding to just make it quick and painless. “I might be starting to like Professor Snape.” Oh Merlin, finally she had said it out loud!

Too scared of the reaction, she didn’t even dare to look Ginny in the eyes. But to her surprise, the only response was a high-pitched giggle. “Hermione, you like all teachers. So I’m not surprised that you like that tosser, too. Even though I do not know how you do it, especially liking him enough to be his apprentice and –“

“No, Ginny, I –“ The Gryffindor Princess rubbed the back of her neck with a shaky hand. “I think I might fancy him.”

“ **WHAT?!** ” The ginger jumped to her feet, knocking over the bottle of nail polish and spilling its content all over the comforter in the process.

“Ginny, please!” She tried to calm her friend down, but it was to no avail – the whirlwind that was Ginevra Weasley had been unleashed.

“You have a crush on Snape? SNAPE?! The greasy git of the dungeons? The most hated teacher in all of Hogwarts? **That Snape?!** ” The look of disbelief and betrayal was painfully obvious.

“I don’t know, Ginny, I just don’t know! I have all of these confusing feelings and I don’t know what to make of them, okay?!” At this point, Hermione’s brown eyes were burning and starting to fill with tears; she couldn’t help but feel embarrassed.

“Hey, hey, come on! It’s nothing to cry about.” Ginny gave her shoulders a strong reaffirming squeeze, however, she still had horror written all over her face. “Even if we’re talking about Snape here.”

A lone tear rolled down Granger’s blushed cheek. “I don’t even know when it started, I –“ The words got stuck in her throat as she erupted into sobs. “How can I like a teacher in that way?! Like, maybe that could even get me EXPELLED!”

Even as her friend was breaking down in front of her, Ginny couldn’t help but stifle a laugh – typical know-it-all Hermione, always worried about academic success! Even though she was still mortified at the thought of her best friend having a crush on Slytherin’s head snake, she knew that she had to remain level-headed somehow. “Now, calm down, we’ll figure this out somehow! Why do you like him?"

The young adult sniffled. “I don’t know! It’s just that he’s being so nice to me!”

“Really?!” The Weasley offspring tilted her head to the left, obviously doubting the statement. “Snape and nice?”

“Yes, extremely nice!” Hermione blurted out before using the right sleeve of her jumper to wipe her flushed face. “You know, after our stupid argument, I felt so sad and miserable. And he invited me to his rooms and we had some tea and he let me vent. He consoled me, Gin!” Come to think of it, she didn’t even know how he had become aware of their fallout since she’d never openly mentioned it in front of him.

“You’re kidding!” The older girl just gave a curt nod as confirmation before breaking into tears again. “Hey, I’m sorry! It’s just hard to imagine that Snape actually has some real human feelings.”

“Well, he does! I feel like he actually cares about me, you know? Like, it almost feels as though he’s my friend. He even gave me the password to his private quarters so that I would have somewhere to retreat to.”

“WHA–“ Forcing herself to remain calm, Ginny took a deep breath. “Hermione, are you being for real?”

“Of course! I’ve been spending time there every day!”

Shocked, the adolescent put her palm on her chest. “Hold on! Severus Snape, a grown man and teacher at this school, is allowing you, a beautiful 18-year-old girl and one of his students, in his private quarters where the two of you are alone? Ew, what a creep!”

“It’s not like that, Ginny!” the gifted pupil grimaced. “Never once has he done anything even remotely inappropriate! We just work on something together or read some books and sometimes we eat meals together. If anything, I’m the one that has taken it too far.”

“What do you mean?” No response. “Hermione?”

“I hugged him once …” It was merely a whisper but the adolescent heard her nonetheless.

“YOU DID WHAT?”

Hermione hung her head low, burying her hands deep in her massive brown locks. “I hugged him, in the Entrance Hall during the Hallowe’en Feast. We had talked earlier about how much he hated dressing up but then he surprised me by showing up with his teeth charmed to look like a vampire and … I don’t know, I just became so excited and before I knew it I was hugging him!”

At this point, Ginny felt as though she was in a bad dream, like she would wake up soon and realise that her best friend wasn’t really falling for the greasy git. “Did he, like, hug you back?”

The brunette thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I think so.” She squeezed her eyes shut tightly. “I liked it, too.”

No one said anything for a long time. After trying to process all of that new crazy information, it was the pure-blood that finally spoke up, “I’m honestly just a bit overwhelmed right now. I feel like if there was even just one more thing, I’d go crazy!” She let out a forced laugh, however, she still noticed how suspiciously quiet her friend was being. “Hermione … is there another thing?”

And so the Head Girl told her best friend about the Mudblood incident, about how she and Professor Snape had fallen asleep hugging each other, and while Ginny had several more emotional outburst along the way, the redhead ultimately mumbled, “Wow, I … really don’t know what to say.”

“I’m screwed!” the Muggle-born exclaimed before tearing up again.

Gin let out a huge sigh. “Hermione, at the end of the day, you cannot help who you fall in love with. And while I am certainly not a fan of the Dungeon Bat myself, you definitely could have done worse.” She skilfully ignored the other girl’s glare. “He’s probably the only person in the whole world that can keep up with your intellect and according to what you told me, he’s also treating you right. And to be honest, he’s not really as ugly as we all make him out to be. Plus, maybe this infatuation is just a phase. So many girls have crushes on their teachers at some point. Chances are by tomorrow you’re already over it.”

The freckled beauty grabbed her hand. “The only thing I’m worried about is that it seems as though he might be starting to take a liking to you too and if anything were to happen between the two of you while you’re still a student, you both could get into major trouble. So just be careful, okay?” There was a short moment of silence. “I’ll always support you, Hermione, no matter what.”

Half an hour of talking later, the girlfriend of The Boy Who Lived had to leave – it was Bill’s birthday and she still needed to send out her gift as she had forgotten to do so earlier. “Don't ever forget that I love you, 'kay? I’m so glad we made up and don’t worry, we’ll figure out this Snape thing somehow!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, Hermione is finally starting to catch feelings, too! :-P And while I agree with most of you about her friends being massive jerks, I still wanted to bring Ginny back into the picture. I feel like the reason she was being such a bad friend was because she’s dealing with a lot of stuff herself right now. I just wanted Hermione to have a best friend that can help her out with her boy troubles.  
> Yet again, I’d like to apologise for always taking so long to upload new chapters but university is seriously killing me right now. Hopefully, with Christmas break coming up, I’ll be able to write a bit more!


	18. Hogsmeade Rendezvous

“Where are you going, Miss Gran- Hermione?”

Already halfway out of the small hole in the stone wall, the young woman turned around in surprise. “Um … I was just going to go the bathroom.”

Snape gave her a calculated look from his seat in one of the wing chairs in front of the fireplace. “You could just use mine, you know. It’s the door to the left.”

“Oh! Okay …” Hermione felt embarrassed by how much she was stuttering all of the sudden. “Thank you, Sir.” And with that, she staggered through the dimly lit sitting room to said door before disappearing into the room behind it.

Once inside, however, the brunette immediately had to gasp in amazement. The bathroom itself wasn’t special; if anything, it was rather dilapidated. In the middle of the room, a big round bathtub was embedded into the grey stone floor; it had probably not been used in a really long time since it was covered in a thick layer of dust. The left corner was home to a huge walk-in shower whose faucet was leaking heavily at its base and opposite of that there was one of those outdated eggshell white toilets with a flush chain, its lid slightly crooked. The only piece of furniture in the room was an elongated washbasin made of black marble that extended from one end of the wall to the other; the enamel of the sink was already starting to chip in some places. But the one thing that made the room extraordinary was the fact that one of its walls wasn’t made of stone – instead, it was just one big glass window looking out into the depths of the Great Lake.

Her mouth wide open, Hermione took a few steps into the room towards the glass just as a school of small fish swam by. The murky water gave the entire bathroom an eerie greenish tint – how amusingly fitting for the quarters of the Head of Slytherin. Taking a closer look, the student could see the amazing panorama that was normally hidden deep within the Hogwarts lake: The ground consisted of natural boulders covered in seaweed, with countless aquatic creatures just swimming around or using them for hiding. A small Grindylow could be seen; it had apparently repurposed an old suitcase into a nice little home. And maybe it was just imagination, but she thought that she could also see the friendly giant squid’s shadow dancing around in the background somewhere. The Head Girl was truly mesmerised – she had always loved the water and how it gave her the freedom to move around weightlessly. So unsurprisingly, she had fallen in love with the lake during that first boat ride she had taken as an incoming first-year. And while she had spent many beautiful hours by its shore, she had never once seen it from this perspective. After all, she had been unconscious during the second task of the Triwizard Tournament.

The know-it-all was so captivated by the beauty in front of her that the sudden loud knock at the door made her jump. “Hermione? Is everything alright?” Shit – she must have been starring out of that window for too long!

“Yes, I will just be a minute!” she shouted back and could soon hear the sound of footsteps walking away from the door. Quickly using the toilet, the one thing that she had originally came into the bathroom for, she washed her hands and was just about to leave the bathroom, her slender hand already on the doorknob, when she suddenly heard the unmistakable sound of the Floo Network coming from the other room. The Muggle-born pulled her hand back in hesitation; she didn’t know who the mysterious visitor was, of course, but regardless it would be better if no one saw her in her teacher’s rooms and started asking questions.

She carefully placed her ear on the wooden door, not once thinking about the fact that she might be eavesdropping on a very private conversation. “Severus, my boy!” The cheerful voice obviously belonged to Professor Dumbledore. Her heart skipped a beat – had she returned to the sitting room just one second earlier, Professor Snape and her could have been in a really sticky situation!

“Headmaster.” The Potions teacher’s voice was almost too low to understand. Hermione had to smirk when she thought about the long face he was certainly making right now; she knew all too well how much he disliked the older man’s antics. “What brings you here today? Unannounced, if I might add …”

There was a thud-like sound and the Gryffindor assumed that it came from the headmaster sitting down in the wing chair she had occupied just minutes earlier. “I came to enquire your expertise, of course!” There was a short moment of silence. “You know, I’ve recently received an interesting flyer from Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes and immediately felt intrigued by one of their products, the WonderWitch’s Everlasting Eyelashes. Now, with how busy I am right now, I can’t just get up and leave to take a quick trip to Diagon Alley and with Christmas right around the corner, shipping would take ages. And then I thought, ‘Well, Severus is such an intelligent and capable brewer, I am sure he can help me out!’.”

“So, let me get this straight … You are asking me, one of the wizarding world’s best Potion Masters who could brew you everlasting life in a bottle, to make a simple eyelash serum?”

“Yes!” The Gryffindor princess let out a silent laugh – sometimes it really was hard to believe that Professor Dumbledore was the most powerful wizard of his time.

For a few seconds, no one said anything. “I’m not even going to get into how ridiculous this is,” Snape said in a strangely emotionless voice. “But even if I wanted to fulfil your request, I couldn’t. Any magical cosmetic product requires Mooncalf oil which I do not have in stock right now.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot replied. “I thought as much which is why I already placed an order at the apothecary in Hogsmeade. It should be ready to be picked up right about now!” The next part made the brunette perk up her ears. “Why don’t you take Miss Granger with you? Ordering potion ingredients is something that she should familiarises herself with during her apprenticeship and I am sure that it would also be good to get out and away from the seventh-year stress for a bit.”

“May I remind you that students, regardless of their age or position, aren’t allowed to leave school grounds just like that?”

Hermione heard what sounded like footsteps on a rug. “You have my special permission, Severus,” Dumbledore chuckled before once again the sound of flooing resonated through the wizard’s quarters. Still, she waited another minute or two before emerging from her hiding spot.

Professor Snape was still sitting in the exact same spot as before and didn’t even look up as she walked past him but when she finally arrived at her chair, she noticed a small mug filled with plain black tea hovering above it. Her face immediately broke out into a smile; the first few times he had prepared a cup of tea for her, she’d just figured that he wasn’t considerate enough to offer her any milk or sugar. But during one of her visits, the professor had just left to get something from his office, a small house elf had appeared and handed her the drink with the words, “One black tea straight up, just like Master Snape says Miss Hermione likes it!” It was only then that she realised that he had been paying attention to her, after all.

All of the sudden, the pale man spoke up. “Looks like we'll go on an outing today,” he said before taking a sip of his own cup without lifting his eyes from the book on his lap. He liked his tea disgustingly sweet with at least half a dozen spoonfuls of sugar and enough milk to make it appear almost white – Hermione had been paying attention to him too, of course.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

“What do you mean it’s not ready yet?!”

“Ze delivery arrived just a few minutes ago,” the young potioneer at J. Pippin’s Potions said in a thick Eastern European accent. “I still need to veigh it and carry out ze usual tests to prove ze content’s auzenticity.”

“I’m a bloody Potion Master, I can do that myself!” Severus growled threateningly but the man didn’t even bat an eye; he’d obviously not been a student at Hogwarts and therefore never learnt to fear the bat of the dungeons. Snape couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit uneasy – he knew that he’d softened up a lot over the past few months and now he was scared that at some point he was going to lose his authority completely.

“As one, you should be avare of ze laws and regulations dictating zat I am not allowed to give you any goods vizout checking them zoroughly beforehand.”

The dark wizard snorted in disgust. “Well, how long will it take then?!”

“If I ztart right now,” the potioneer answered. “Probably about an hour.”

“ **AN HOUR!** ” The only thing that that outburst got him was a nasty look. “What am I supposed to do for an hour?!”

“It’s okay, Professor.” So far, his apprentice had kept in the background, but now she took a step forward and positioned herself in-between the two men, blocking their view of each other and therefore immediately reducing the tension in the room. She looked him directly into his black eyes, a slight smile on her freckled face, as she gingerly placed her hand on his forearm; Severus’ mouth instantly became dry and he felt like he had a gigantic lump in his throat. “When you think about it, an hour is not even that long. We could go look at the other shops or have a drink.”

“With all due respect, Miss Granger, I can’t just go to the Three Broomsticks and have myself a butterbeer. Merlin forbid someone saw me in there!”

“Oh, don’t worry,” the witch said with a smirk. “If you want to be certain that you won’t meet anyone you know, then I have just the place!”

At first, he was rather confused and a bit intrigued by her smug expression, however, that feeling quickly died down when about five minutes later he found himself jammed in-between the wall and one of the small gaudy tables in Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop. The man felt extremely uncomfortable, almost like a fish out of water. He had known about the place, of course, it had always been _the_ dating hotspot for Hogwarts students, after all. But unsurprisingly, since he’d never been one of the popular kids and thus never scored a date, he had not once set foot inside the infamous tearoom. Looking around, he felt overwhelmed by the seemingly endless amount of tacky and frilly décor covering every single inch of the small room. All corners were filled with ridiculously small round tables pilled with cheap china and fake flowers, the walls were plastered in a terribly ugly floral wallpaper and there were a few random bright pink garlands hanging from the ceiling here and there. The Potions professor didn’t understand how anyone would voluntarily frequent this establishment and thanked the gods that Miss Granger and him were the only customers at that moment; he couldn’t even imagine the weird stares the two of them would otherwise have gotten.

Speaking of Miss Granger, he turned his attention to the young woman sitting opposite of him. She looked so beautiful with her cheeks flushed red from the cold and her brown hair all fuzzy from the fluffy woollen beanie she had been wearing earlier as she was studying the menu in absolute concentration. Severus couldn’t help but be a bit flustered – this was feeling suspiciously like a date and that made his stomach do somersaults.

“I think I’ll just take a coffee,” Hermione finally spoke up. “But I’ve heard that their tea selection is also quite good, if you want something like that.”

When he shook his head, she put the menu down to signal that they were ready to order which in turn set Madam Puddifoot in motion. She was certainly an interesting character – her greasy black hair tied into a strict knot at the top of her head, the corpulent witch had trouble navigating through the cluttered salon without knocking over a bunch of chairs. When she finally reached their table in the far back, she proclaimed in her screeching voice, “What can I get for you, my darlings?” Severus raised one of his black eyebrows – no one had ever called him that.

“Could I get a caramel macchiato with an extra shot of caramel syrup, please?”

“Oh, good choice! You must have quite the sweet tooth!” The older woman let out a deafeningly high laugh before turning around to face Severus. “What about you? Another cup of -“

“Black.”

The short and crisp answer seemed to throw her off for a second. “Alright … I’ll have your beverages with you shortly.” And with that, she staggered away, knocking over the gilded statue of an angel in the process.

For a few minutes, there was an awkward silence. “Isn’t it quite funny how I take my tea straight while you add a lot of sugar and milk, but when it comes to coffee our preferences seem to be the exact opposite?” the Head Girl ultimately said with a shy smile on her face. Snape noticed that she was fiddling with a bracelet that she was wearing around her left wrist as she was talking. He had seen it before; it was the one she had gotten from Dumbledore for her birthday. Opening his mouth to answer, he was interrupted when two cups of steaming hot coffee suddenly appeared out of thin air on the table between them.

Surprised at first, Miss Granger let out a small squeal. He then watched as she carefully pulled her cup closer before taking a sugar shaker from the table next to them and adding about three teaspoons worth of white sweetness to her coffee without tasting it even once. She then took her small spoon and used it to carefully skim off the heavy layer of whip cream topping off her drink, devouring it little by little. The former Death Eater observed her so intently, almost as though he was mesmerised by her trivial movements, that he had to force his eyes away from her form in order to finally take a sip from his own cup. He took a few seconds to savour the bitter taste in his mouth. “Miss –“ He quickly scanned the room and only continued when he saw no sign of the teashop’s owner. “Hermione, do tell me how you thought of this place? I never took you as the hopeless romantic, sappy love story enthusiast type.” 

“Oh! Well …” The Muggle-born seemed a bit nervous all of the sudden, a bit of whip cream still stuck to the corners of her mouth. “I’ve actually been here before.”

Severus tilted his head just ever so slightly – he didn’t like where this was going. “You have?”

“Yes …” Why was she suddenly avoiding eye contact? “With Viktor Krum, during the Triwizard Tournament.”

BANG – it was like a bullet right into his heart. He had completely forgotten about the fact that she had been Krum’s date to the Yule Ball. Of course – any female, even a bookworm like Granger, would be incapable of not falling victim to the famous foreigner’s mysterious charms. The half-blood was starting to feel nauseous; how could he ever compare to someone like that? “How romantic,” he finally managed to squeeze out, his gaze fixated on the floor.

“Not really. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Viktor is a really sweet guy, not at all what you would expect from a student of Durmstrang, and I enjoyed his company greatly.” BANG, BANG – another two hits straight to the chest. “But while we certainly took a liking to each other, the real spark was just never there. And either way, it wouldn’t have worked out in the long run. That whole Quidditch thing is so not my cup of tea and a long-distance relationship at that age? No, at the end of the day it was for the better that we separated on friendly terms.”

What?! Could it be true that the Bulgarian wasn’t in her life anymore?

“Plus, Ron kind of ruined it with his jealousy anyways.”

The Weasley boy! Severus would have never in a million years thought that one day he’d be thankful for that brat’s existence.

“I guess that Viktor was just not the guy I’m looking for.”

The dark-haired man decided to be bolt. “So what are you looking for then?”

Her cheeks somehow became even more flushed than before. “I don’t really know,” she said quietly. “I guess I want someone who takes academics as seriously as I do. Someone who doesn’t get annoyed with me for spending hours reading because he would be just as immersed in the pages as I would be.” There was a short silence.” But I think most importantly I want … I _need_ someone that understands what I went through during the war, someone that has felt the same pain that I have felt. Because I could I ever explain that to an outsider?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for 6,000 hits, you guys are the best! I hope that everyone will stay safe on New Year’s Eve and that you all will have a wonderful year of 2018!
> 
> If any of you are still in the Christmas spirit, make sure to check out my one-shot “That Stupid Old Man!” that I uploaded at the beginning of the month. It’s HG/SS, of course ;-)


	19. A Festive Farewell

There were many reasons why the Potion Master hated Christmas. 

To begin with, Snape hated most customs associated with the festivity. Gifts were only given out of a sense of obligation, Christmas cards were completely pointless as they only gathered dust for a few weeks before one’s able to throw them away without having to feel guilty and let’s not even mention those annoying Christmas carols. For some reason, people also suddenly seemed to think that the season was the perfect time to get friendly with him and try to involve him in all sorts of “fun” activities – how absurd! And while he loved the student-free time, the headmaster still always found a way to ruin it somehow. Not only did the old coot get crazier with his decorations every year, but he also forced the half-blood to take part in the annual Christmas dinner. However, what Severus found the most ridiculous was that the wizarding world would even celebrate a holiday based on the religious beliefs of Muggles. He could understand that those who grew up or married into Muggle families would want to carry on those traditions, of course, but these days even pure-bloods participated and that was just ludicrous. But if he was completely honest with himself, he really hated anything that reminded him of his childhood in the non-magical world.

This year, however, the former double agent had a whole new reason to hate the festivity. As one of the school’s Heads of House, this morning he had received a copy of the list of students that wished to stay in the castle over the holidays. But even after reading through it three times, he hadn’t been able to find Miss Granger’s name on it anywhere and while he would have never admitted that that was the cause, he’d been in a sullen mood ever since. The prospect of not seeing her, not talking to her for two whole weeks made his heart ache.

Snape was sitting at his desk and quietly watched as his sixth-years were streaming out of his dungeon classroom. To give the students enough time to pack and make their way to Hogsmeade Station, the last day of the first term traditionally consisted of only the first period. Once the last pupil left, he got up and walked into the storage room; he always liked to use the holidays to reorganise the small space and get it ready for the next semester.

But only a few minutes later, his work flow was interrupted when he suddenly heard the door to his classroom open. Stepping out of the storage room, he soon laid eyes upon the figure of Hogwarts’ Head Girl. She was standing a few feet away from him in the middle of the empty room, her round face makeup-free and her unruly hair pulled back into a half-updo. It seemed like she was already dressed for the long train ride back to King’s Cross: She was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, ankle booties made of leather, a thick nude sweater and a light blue coat so big that it was threatening to swallow her small frame. As always, she was looking absolutely stunning.

“What are you doing here?” spat the black-haired man; seeing her now was only making his emotional turmoil worse.

The witch was obviously taken aback by his reaction. “Well, I came to say goodbye. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but I did not sign up to stay over the holidays this year.”

“Oh, I’ve noticed,” he mumbled under his breath.

She gave him a confused look. “Um … I mean, I would have told you earlier but it was kind of a last-minute decision. Yesterday, Ginny persuaded me to spend Christmas with her family at the Burrow and so I had Professor McGonagall take my name off the list. Harry will be there, too, and I thought that maybe I could use this time to try and patch things up with Ronald.” Argh – whenever he heard that name, Severus couldn’t help but instantly feel annoyed; he was starting to dislike Weasley almost as much as James Potter. He would never understand why someone as smart and amazing as Hermione Granger would want to be friends with a dunderhead like that. “But before I leave, I just wanted to bring you this.”

He watched as she pulled out a small metal tin from the pocket of her coat and handed it to him. “What is this?” he asked before carefully unfastening the bow tied around it and lifting the lid. “… Biscuits?”

“I know it’s not much but I wanted to give you something to show my appreciation and this was the only thing I could make on such short notice.”

The teacher raised his bushy eyebrows in surprise. “You _made_ these?”

“Yes!” The Muggle-born let out a small giggle. “The house elves normally don’t let anyone touch their pots and pans but I guess they are still terrified of me because of my past S.P.E.W. efforts. As long as I promised not to slip them any socks or hats, they gave me free rein to use their workspace. So this morning before breakfast, I sneaked out of my tower, baked these and used a static charm to keep them warm.”

Snape had to suppress a smirk. Oh yes, he still vividly remembered how she’d used to fiercely campaign for the rights of those magical creatures during her fourth year. It had been a pointless endeavour, of course, as the majority of house elves were submissive by nature and wanted to serve a master, but he still secretly admired her persistence and kind-heartedness. He reached out his hand and took one of the cookies. “Hmm,” he said as he took a big bite, a nutty flavour filling his mouth. “I have to admit that this is rather delicious. It seems as though your culinary capabilities are just as good as your brewing skills.”

“Thank you for the compliment, Sir, but I’m normally quite the disaster in the kitchen. But thank Merlin that not even a cook as disastrous as I can mess up this foolproof recipe from –“ The teenager made an abrupt pause, her smile disappearing from her face. “From my mother.”

The wizard frowned – why was she sad all of the sudden? But before he could ask her about it, Hermione took a look at her watch and immediately gasped. “Oh no, I have to hurry if I don’t want to miss the train!” Biting her lower lip, her eyes wandered to the ground – was she blushing? “But before I say goodbye, there is one more thing I’d like to do …”

Severus eyed his young apprentice with suspicion. As an experienced teacher of over a decade and a half, he was all too familiar with that look she had on her face – it was the look of a student who was _definitely_ up to something mischievous. But even so, he wasn’t at all prepared for what happened next as the girl stepped forward and embraced him in a hug that could melt mid-winter snow.

“I wish you a very happy Christmas, Sir,” she whispered, her face buried in his chest. “Being able to study under you is and will always be the greatest gift!”

For a split second, Snape was paralysed by the sudden intimacy but then, one hand around her petite waist and the other entangled in her hair, he pulled the brunette closer. “Happy Christmas, Hermione,” he muttered back, inhaling the sweet floral scent of her perfume.

And as he watched her disappear through the door a few minutes later, the heels of her boots audibly dragging across the stone floor, his cold bitter heart felt just a little bit warmer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year, loves! I hope you enjoyed this short but sweet chapter <3 Trust me when I say that some very exciting things are soon about to happen between our two lovebirds!


	20. Celebrating You

“Hermione, my dear, I keep telling you that you’re getting too thin! Would you like a piece of my famous cinnamon apple pie? It’s fresh out of the oven!”

The young witch smiled. Sitting at the large wooden table in the Burrow’s kitchen, the family’s famous clock ticking away in the background, she was flipping through this morning’s Daily Prophet as the Weasley matriarch was busy preparing breakfast for everyone. Coming back had felt like returning home – she had needed some time away from all the N.E.W.T. stress at school and it had been so nice to see the redheaded nonuple in its entirety again. And while Ron and her were still a bit uneasy around each other, they were at least back on speaking terms. “No, thank you, Mrs Weasley,” she said. “Personally, seven in the morning is just a bit too early for dessert!”

The Muggle-born turned her attention back to the newspaper in front of her but she could not focus on the words written there – because the only thing busier than the kitchen was her mind. She couldn’t stop thinking about Professor Snape. The two of them have unarguably gotten close over the past few months. While he had definitely hated having her as an apprentice at first it didn’t seem like that was the case anymore; or at least he didn’t show it any longer. She couldn’t be sure, of course, but she had the feeling that he enjoyed being around her just as much as she enjoyed being around him. And she loved that rush of ecstasy that spread through her body like wildfire whenever he called her by her first name. “Maybe being in love with a teacher isn’t that bad, after all,” she thought. She knew that nothing would ever come from it, of course, but she figured she could at least enjoy it while it lasted.

However, there was one thing that was bothering her. Hermione knew that his birthday was in one week’s time from filling out her apprenticeship application; all possible tutors were listed with both rank and date of birth. But what made her sad was knowing that no one, not even he himself, would care. There would be no party, no birthday cards and no presents (except for one from Dumbledore, maybe) and he deserved so much more than that! He might be kind of a grouch and not the most pleasant teacher but he was a brilliant man and deserved to have his life celebrated. And after the amazing gift he’d given to her, she wanted to give him something in return.

Suddenly, she had an idea. “Hey, Mrs Weasley.” The older woman turned around, a pan of still sizzling bacon in her hand. “Can I ask you something?”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

If there was one place in the entire castle where you did not want to be during the winter, it was the dungeons. They were already disgustingly cold and permanently damp under normal conditions, but the colder months made them almost unbearable. And so on this particular Friday night in early January, as Severus was working in his beloved classroom, the temperature was so low that he could see his own breath.

He was slowly walking around the room, placing a sheet of paper on each of the student desks one by one. His first class after the weekend would be the second year Slytherins and Gryffindors and he had prepared an especially hard surprise exam for them. He obviously knew that none of them had studied for Potions over the holidays but he did not care – after all, he was a bit of a sadist. But always one to favour his own house, he was planning on casually dropping a small hint while conducting his weekly visit of the common room tomorrow.

Now, one might think that Snape was simply being a very diligent teacher that liked to make sure that all of his tasks were done way ahead of time – which was true. But on this specific day, his actions had an added motive as he was trying to distract himself from the fact that today was his 38th birthday.

The Dungeon Bat had never been one to attach significance to the date of his birth and he couldn’t even remember the last time he had celebrated it; it had always just been a day like any other. But this year, it was different. This year, he had loathed its arrival. Why? Because turning a year older just served as yet another reminder of how messed up this attraction to his young student really was; it pulled him out of the dream world in which he wasn’t her professor, in which he wasn’t a lot older than her and in which he still had a chance to get with her. A twenty-year age gap – how could he not feel like a creep?

Deep in thought, he literally jumped at the sudden knock at the door. “Professor!” Sticking her head through the crack, Miss Granger immediately started to beam from ear to ear once she spotted him in the dimly lit room. “There you are! You know, after checking your office and your rooms, I almost thought you had vanished into thin air!”

Snape was so surprised that he felt like he had gotten every wisp of air knocked out of his lungs. “Wha- ”

But before he could even get a word in, the Gryffindor’s head swiftly disappeared behind the wooden door again. After about ten seconds of weird noises and sounds, the door was pushed open to reveal a colourful party hat wearing Hermione Granger, a lit Muggle sparkler in one hand and a relatively big gift box in the other. Taking five big steps into the room, she arrived in front of him and held out the package with both hands, almost risking setting it ablaze with her hand-held firework. “Happy, happy birthday, Professor Snape!”

The wizard was at a loss for words; he felt like a young pubescent boy all over again as all he could do was stare dumbfounded at this perfect woman standing in from of him. After a long day of studying, this beautiful creature had made her way into the bitter cold dungeons to congratulate him, even putting in the effort of wearing one of those ridiculous paper cones on her head. Severus didn’t know what he had done to deserve her. Just two minutes ago, he had been hating himself and the world and had wanted nothing more than for this day to be over. But like the wind, she had swooped in and brightened his day, completely overwhelming him with emotions. The way she was looking at him, full of excitement and joy, and the beautiful colour of her flushed cheeks made his knees weak. Who knew that he would one day find happiness like this in Harry Potter’s best friend?

“Come on, open it!”

The student’s exclamation abruptly pulled him back into reality. Trying hard to ignore how inviting her plump lips were looking, he replied, “But why would you get me a birthday gift? Apprentices do not give their tutors anything, that’s not part of the tradition.”

She placed the now burned-out sparkler on the desk next to her before simply saying, “No, but I just wanted to give you something.”

Severus felt his heart melting – had he been blessed by the presence of an angel? He removed the lid with a shaky hand and pulled out some sort of emerald green piece of fabric. “What is this?” he asked confused.

“It’s a jumper!” she said, taking it from him and holding it out so he could properly see it. Indeed, it was a deep green pullover made of thick wool. “I know that you normally only wear black but I thought that this colour would go great with your light skin and it also fits your house colours! And even if you won’t wear it on the daily, it would at least be good for Quidditch games.”

He was amazed by how much thought she had put into this. “Hermione, I appreciate this greatly but you really shouldn’t have spent your money on me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart, however, I cannot accept this gift.”

“But I didn’t spend anything, Professor, I made it myself! I asked Mrs Weasley for help as I’m not really acquainted with the art of magical knitting. I didn't tell her why I wanted to learn it, of course, but you wouldn’t believe how excited she was to pass her secret housewife tips and tricks on to me. I guess Ginny was always too much of a tomboy for her.” She let out a small laugh.

The Potion Master couldn’t help but experience a warm sensation spread from his middle all the way to his fingers and toes. Not only had she remembered his birthday but she had also taken time out of her busy day to carefully craft this sweater for him – no one had ever genuinely cared this much about him! “Hermione.” He had to swallow as it suddenly felt as though he had a frog in his throat. “Would you maybe like to join me in my quarters for a cup of tea? Plain, of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I normally don’t update this quickly but I am so excited for the next chapters that I cannot help but work fast :-P  
> Anyways, as always I do hope you liked it!


	21. An Unpleasant Surprise II

“Oh!” Seeing the tall frame of the Potion Master was not what Granger had expected to see when opening the heavy door to her Head Girl suite. For some reason, her cheeks started to burn. “Professor Snape ... what are you doing here?”

“Good evening, Hermione.” As always, he had looked around first to make sure that no one was within earshot before addressing her by her first name and the Gryffindor had to suppress a smile – it was kind of adorable. “After our lesson this afternoon, I noticed that you had left your Transfiguration book in my office by accident and since I know that you will need it tomorrow for class, I thought that I would stop by on my way back from supper and drop it off.” He held out the book to her and it looked so small in his big hand – the witch couldn’t help but think about what else those manly hands were capable of.

“Th- thank you, Sir!” Her heart was pounding out of her chest – he was being so thoughtful! It was hard to believe that she had used to be so intimidated by him. After getting to know him over the past few months on a more personal level, she’d realised how genuine and caring he really was. “Um … would you maybe like to come inside? I don’t feel comfortable just sending you off back into the dungeons after you did me this huge favour.”

She could see him hesitate for a second and felt like the suspense was about to make her pass out. “I suppose that I could stay for a few minutes ...” he ultimately said in that deep voice of his that was like honey to her ears and Hermione had to bite the insides of her cheeks to keep herself from squealing in delight.

Trying hard to keep her nerves under control, she stepped aside to give him enough space to enter. As he brushed past her, his arm briefly touched hers and it caused a bolt of electricity to rush through her entire body. No boy had ever set foot inside of her bedroom before – with the exception of Ron and Harry, of course – and while having male company before curfew technically wasn’t forbidden, it still made her feel kind of naughty for some reason. And Severus Snape wasn’t even a boy, no, he was a full-grown man that was able to make her feel things she’d never experienced before.

“My apologies, Sir, for the lack of sitting accommodations,” the Muggle-born said as she pushed the door shut. “When I first moved in, there was a pair of old reading chairs in that corner over there but I had the house elves remove them because I felt like I don’t have people over often enough to warrant them taking up so much space. But you can sit on my bed if you’d like!”

She could see his dark eyes widen for a split second but the wizard quickly regained his cold expression. “Ah … yes,” he said in a hushed voice before stiffly walking over to her large four-poster bed and slumping down on it. It was an almost comical sight, seeing this pale-skinned man dressed in all black sitting on her old floral comforter, surrounded by a seemingly endless number of ruffled pillows. But even that didn’t stop her thoughts from running wild: Her mind produced mental pictures of him pulling her into bed, of them rolling around in it half-naked, of his rough hands slipping off her panties and –

The student had to force herself to stop or otherwise she would have started to turn beet red. So instead, she refocused her energy on trying to get rid of the sudden silence that had entered the room. But just as she was about to open her mouth to try and initiate a conversation, she was interrupted by what sounded like clawing on glass. Turning her head, she spotted two small school owls sitting on her window sill. How weird – why would she receive a letter at this time of day, let alone two? Slightly confused, she walked over and opened the window for the fluffy animals before exchanging some extra-large treats for their mail.

She could feel the Dungeon Bat’s gaze on her as she inspected the late-night delivery more closely. There were two completely identical rolls of parchment paper, both bearing the official Hogwarts wax seal, but she soon realised that only one was addressed to her.

“This one’s for you, Professor.”

“What?!” Snape stood up, his brows furrowed deeply, and it only took his long legs two big strides to reach the other end of the room where she was standing. Taking the roll from her hand, he teared it open rather violently and quickly skimmed over its content. Hermione couldn’t see what was written in the short note, however, the dark-haired man did not seem to like it one bit as he exclaimed, “ **THAT BLOODY IDIOT!** ” before ripping the paper into tiny pieces.

That only added to the girl’s confusion but she knew better than to ask questions while he was having a fit of anger. Carefully unrolling her letter, her brown eyes grew bigger and bigger with each word she read written in the headmaster’s small handwriting.

 _Miss Granger,_  
_To celebrate how successful the revival of our apprenticeship programme has been thus far, I have decided to throw a ball which is to take place on Friday, the twenty-third of January. I will make an announcement to the entire school tomorrow at supper but thought that all tutors and apprentices should be informed in advance as they will be required to lead the first dance._  
_I am certain that you will greatly enjoy the evening!_  
_Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

She was completely flabbergasted and could even feel herself starting to get a bit nauseous. “A ball?”

“YES! A FUCKING BALL!” The half-blood was pacing up and down, his face hidden behind his long hair. “First that ludicrous Halloween party and now this! What is that old man thinking?! Teachers dancing with students … in front of the entire school! I just –“ Suddenly, he stopped dead in his tracks and looked up. Wait – was he blushing? “I think that I should go now, Miss Granger.”

And before she could say anything else, he was already gone, leaving the young woman alone and confused.

But not even a minute after he had left, the door was thrown open again. “ **HERMIONE!** ” Ginny came storming in, waving her version of the letter around wildly. A much calmer Harry came trailing in after her. “DOES THIS MEAN I WILL HAVE TO DANCE WITH MCGONAGALL?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A relatively short chapter because as you may have already guessed – it’s going to go down in the next one! lol  
> I will try my best to be fast but as it’s going to be such a big part of the story it’ll be very lengthy and I want to take enough time to ensure that it’s well-written. So please bear with me, it’s going to be worth it! <3


	22. Like Dark Chocolate

Even after numerous protests on the Potion Master’s part, the headmaster had still insisted on having that stupid ball and so now Severus felt like a fumbling school boy as he waited for his apprentice at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the Head Girl suite. Underneath his long dressing robes, he was wearing an old suit that he’d dug out from somewhere in the depths of his closet; he had originally acquired it shortly before joining the Dark Lord’s ranks and between then and now the war had battered his body so terribly that the ensemble looked almost to baggy on him. He’d also tried taming his ever-greasy hair by using several magical beauty products before tying it together with a thin leather band at the nape of his neck; it still looked way too oily, however, it was at least somewhat presentable.

Wiping his sweaty hands on his black robes, the wizard was pacing up and down anxiously. He was so nervous that his stomach was in knots. The thought of having to dance with Miss Granger, of having to be so extremely close to her had kept him up all night, causing him to get not an ounce of sleep. Under normal circumstances, school functions were nothing but a nuisance to him but tonight’s event had him breaking out in a cold sweat just thinking about it. Never before had he felt this tense, had he been this afraid of failing – failing and messing up the closest thing to a date he would ever have with the newfound love of his life.

Driving the sharp nails of his slender fingers into the skin of his forearms, he realised that he couldn’t go through with it, no, he simply couldn’t. But just as he was about to turn around and make a run for it, he suddenly heard the sound of her heels hitting the stone steps of the spiral staircase – click, click – getting louder and louder each time. Severus inhaled sharply and before he had any more time to prepare himself properly, she appeared in his field of vision and completely blew him away.

Her light brown locks were done into a romantic braided updo, with a few curly strands pulled out to frame her face. Her makeup was dramatic, combining perfectly winged eyeliner with a deep red lip, but it still suited her well. Accessories, on the other hand, had been kept to a minimum, with only a pair of small crystal studs in her ears and a dainty white gold bracelet around her left wrist. But the most breath-taking part of her look was definitely the dress – made of flowing satin so very dark green that it looked almost black, it seemed to hug her curves and fall loosely on her body all at the same time. The straps made of thin silver chains seemed so delicate that they couldn’t possible hold up such a heavy gown yet somehow, they did. And between the plunging neckline and a very high slit showing off one of her bare legs, the man didn’t know where to look without turning crimson red.

“Good evening, Professor.”

His student’s soft-spoken words caused his head to snap up in surprise, tearing his eyes away from her voluptuous figure. Wow – she was truly so beautiful, even more so as she offered him another one of her characteristic shy smiles. Snape was so captivated by her allure that he was at a loss for words and she must have misinterpreted that silence.

“What? Don’t you like it?” Hermione asked before giving him a little twirl. It was only then that he noticed that the long dress was backless except for a winding snake made of silver metal that stretched from in-between her prominent shoulder blades down to her lower back, attached to the gown with nothing more than about a dozen fine chains. She looked like a piece of art and he couldn’t help but feel extremely ugly next to her, wearing his old dusty suit.

“You look … absolutely amazing!” The words left his mouth before the half-blood had a chance to control himself and for a split second, he was scared that he’d come on too strong. But then she let out a small giggle that was so adorable that it made his heart jump with joy. “Maybe this evening won’t be that bad, after all,” he thought. He offered her his arm, feeling a rush of adrenaline shoot through his body at her touch, and then the pair slowly walked off in the direction of the Great Hall.

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“You know, ever since you know what happened, I’ve been feeling kind of down and not like myself but tonight I’m actually having fun for the first time in weeks,” Ginny said as she stood in front of the dirty bathroom mirror, carefully tracing her bottom lip with a mauve-coloured lip liner that she had fished out of her small clutch bag. The youngest Weasley was looking absolutely stunning this evening – she was wearing a form-fitting off-the-shoulder gown made of crimson red silk, which went surprisingly well with the colour of her hair and made her look almost like one of those old movie stars. Her waist-length locks had been charmed into beautiful beachy waves and her bright brown eyes were accentuated with lots of black eyeliner, giving them a sultry look. “And while it was bloody awkward, of course, I do have to admit that McGonagall’s pretty good at dancing. It surprised me, really.”

“Well, the two of you definitely didn’t look half as weird as Hagrid and Luna did,” Hermione replied laughing as she readjusted the tangled straps of her dress. “Or Harry and Remus, for that matter.”

Once done retouching her makeup, her best friend turned around and faced her with a big grin. “Anyways, now that we’re _finally_ alone: How is it being Snape’s date?”

The Muggle-born’s skin instantly started to burn. “I don’t think you can really call it a date when both parties were practically forced into it …,” she mumbled.

“Hermione, please! Regardless of the circumstances, for tonight you’re his date and he’s yours – you are allowed to enjoy that!”

She sighed. “I don’t know, Gin. Professor Snape is clearly hating all of this. I mean, he’s barely even talking to me!”

The redhead rolled her eyes dramatically. “Seriously, you need to stop doubting yourself all the time. If anything, the reason why he’s being shy is because you’re the most gorgeous girl of the ball. Not even a Dungeon Bat like him is immune to that, trust me. And besides, you can’t tell me that you didn’t love dancing with him either, I saw that look you had on your face!”

Hermione pursed her lips. “I mean, it was pretty nice! He’s not the best dancer but neither am I and I think we did a pretty good job for that. But it was honestly just too awkward with everyone staring at us.”

“Well, you never know what the rest of the night might bring,” the younger girl said with a wink before grabbing her hand. “Come on, let’s get back out there!”

They left the bathroom and walked through a deserted corridor before entering the Great Hall. The party was still in full swing – everyone was either sitting at their table eating or mingling on the dance floor and Hermione laughed out loud when she saw Professor Flitwick standing on a little wooden box so that he would be tall enough to dance with the school’s librarian. The two girls made their way through the crowd to the other side of the room before parting ways; the staff table as well as the four long House tables had been replaced by countless smaller circular ones distributed along the walls of the gigantic hall and their respective tutors and them had been sat at different ones. The Potion Master and her shared one with Madam Pomfrey, Hannah Abbott, Professor Sprout and Neville Longbottom – the latter had instantly turned as white as a ghost once he’d realised that. Taking a deep breath, the Head Girl walked over to it and sat down in the empty chair in-between the matron and Professor Snape who acknowledged her with a simple curt nod. He was looking downright dashing tonight – while he already made her heart flutter under normal circumstances, tonight she felt like throwing up butterflies. With his long jet-black hair tied back like this, she was able to see features of his face that prior to that had always been hidden and she definitely liked what she saw. As expected, his suit and velvet robes were black as coal and they complimented his tall, slim figure nicely. The only pop of colour was provided by the deep red cravat around his neck which he wore instead of the standard bow tie that pretty much every other male was sporting; it gave him a handsome vintage look.

Trying to distract herself from the attractive man sitting next to her, she picked up the menu. As she was studying it, she could hear Professor Sprout try to engage her tutor in a conversation about the new weatherproof foxglove bed she’d recently started behind one of the greenhouses but he simply blew her off and that made the know-it-all smile on the inside – she’d come to love his snarky personality. Sometimes she even wished that she was a bit more like him; being such a big people-pleaser definitely made her life a lot harder than it needed to be. After looking at the menu card for a few minutes, she finally decided on the five-spice beef stew and just like at the Yule Ball the dish appeared in front of her in an instant. She ate a few spoonfuls and it was delicious, of course, just like anything else the house elves prepared. But she still couldn’t properly enjoy the meal; her nerves had settled in her stomach and made her not want to eat. She’d felt uneasy ever since receiving Dumbledore’s letter and yesterday evening that had turned into full-blown anxiety. Being your crush’s date sounded nice in theory but in reality it just made you feel uncomfortable and insecure – and so the witch simply picked at her food.

All of the sudden she felt someone’s breath on her neck. “Hermione, are you okay?” she heard Snape whisper, quiet enough so that no one else could hear him. His breath felt icy-cold against her sweaty skin. “You’re hardly eating.”

The young woman let out a small gasp, embarrassed by his sudden approach but at the same time touched that he cared enough to notice her lack of appetite. Beneath the table, one of her hands clenched the delicate fabric of her gown. “Everything’s fine, I’m just feeling a bit dizzy. I guess it’s a little too stuffy in here for me,” she lied.

“Would you perhaps like to go outside to get some fresh air then?” he asked softly.

Her look wandered to the enchanted ceiling above them which was covered with dark clouds. “But it’s raining.”

He thought for a moment. “Follow me,” he then answered before abruptly standing up and walking away.

Taken a bit by surprise, it took Hermione a few seconds, but then she too got up and followed him, ignoring the curious looks of the people around them. Her teacher wordlessly led her out of the Great Hall and through a maze full of twists and turns before finally coming to a halt in front of a tiny side door which she’d never seen before. He pushed it open, allowing a gush of ice-cold air to invade the castle, and gestured for her to go first. Frowning, she took a cautious step forward and soon found herself standing on the paved top of a small hill, right underneath an old and very tall oak tree which had branches so long that they overstretched the mound completely and protected it from the rain. From up here, one had a great view over the school’s entire grounds all the way down to the Quidditch pitch.

“ _Wow_ ,” Hermione breathed, mesmerised by the sight of the sunset’s reflection on the waters of the Black Lake. “This is beautiful! How did you find this place?”

“I discovered it during my first year teaching,” Professor Snape replied before walking past her and sitting down on the brittle tree bench. “It’s one of my favourite spots here at Hogwarts but I don’t think that a lot of people actually know about it. At least I’ve never seen anyone here.”

Stealthily turning her face away from him, the young woman broke into a secret grin – she felt honoured that he would share this with her. She sat down next to her love interest and for a while, they remained in silence. Even though it had been an exceptionally warm winter without any snow so far, the temperature was still very low and Hermione probably should have been freezing at this point, wearing nothing but a thin dress. But truth be told, she was too much in her head to feel anything. While she always loved getting to spend time with the Potions professor, she didn’t really know how to act in this moment.

Just as the sun was finally setting behind the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and nightfall took over, she mustered all of her courage to break the quiet. “You know, I didn’t expect it but the ball’s actually quite nice. If only it wasn’t for everyone gawping at us, especially while we were dancing …”

The black-haired man lifted his head and looked at her. It felt like an eternity had passed before he ultimately said, “We could dance here if you’d like.”

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

“What?”

“I said that we could dance here.” His tone was cold, but inside his stomach had dropped. Severus didn’t know why he had made such a suggestion. Yet again, his words had come out faster than he’d been able to think; she seemed to have that effect on him. “It would be the perfect place. There aren’t any unwanted spectators and, albeit faint, we can still hear the music from the Great Hall.”

“You would really do that for me?” Her pale face was unreadable.

“Yes.” He was sure that she could hear how shaky his voice was. “Yes, of course.”

His apprentice gave him such a calculated look that he couldn’t help but gulp. Why was she taking so long with her answer? “Okay,” Hermione finally said in a hushed tone before rising. “Let’s dance.”

The wizard felt his heart drop into his gut – oh Merlin, they were actually going to do this! With unsteady legs, he also stood up. The two of them turned towards each other and were just about to reach out for one another’s arms when the music unexpectantly changed from classical to very slow and romantic. For a few moments, they shared an awkward look but then – to both his dismay and delight – the Gryffindor Princess stepped forward and carefully rested her hands on his shoulders and her forehead in the crook of his neck.

Snape tried very hard to ignore that sudden warm sensation spreading in his chest as he slowly pulled her into his embrace, feeling the warmth of her skin and the cold of her gown’s metal backpiece underneath his fingers. She was so tiny that she almost disappeared within his dark robes. Alarmed by how much more intimate this dance was compared to the first one they had shared, he precautionarily moved his pelvis away from her. His temples were pounding as they started to slowly sway to the beat of the music. Regardless of how nervous he was right now, it was still so nice to have his little witch this close to him, to experience her with all of his senses far, far away from the curious looks of any pesky pupils (and headmasters).

Severus thought that he must be dreaming – this didn’t feel like they were simply a teacher and a student sharing a dance at a school ball, no, it was like they were two lovers holding each other in the moonlight underneath thousands of stars. He was embarrassed to admit it, but he had to suppress the urge to just whisk her away to his bedroom, lay her down and do unspeakable things to her body.

He knew that he was playing with fire, that he should just turn around and leave before he completely lost control. Oh, but she was looking just so painfully beautiful tonight, almost like a forbidden fruit – maybe he could dare to take just one little bite?

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

Hermione couldn’t have described the way he smelled even if she’d tried. Years of exposure to potion fumes had given the dark wizard a one of a kind scent; an aroma that was so weirdly familiar to her but so foreign at the same time. He smelled like a mixture of French vanilla and myrrh combined with cedarwood and lavender, like fresh cut grass and the salty haze of the seaside. Somehow it even reminded her of that one summer she had spent with her parents at a family friend’s vacation home in the south of Italy – it made her recall the cigarette tobacco which her father had used to only ever smoke while on holiday and the citrusy Limoncello her mother had once drunk in that cute little restaurant at the beach. It was a very complex scent, unlike anything she’d ever smelled before, but she liked it.

The female bit her bottom lip as she carefully nestled the side of her face into his large chest, close enough to where she could hear the steady beat of his heart. His thick robes which had swirled around his legs majestically during their first dance now engulfed them both, protecting her petite frame from the cold. Her heart was so unbelievably full as the two of them slowly swayed to the rhythm of the muffled music. Hermione knew that it meant nothing, of course, that this dance was only a nice platonic gesture on his part, but she would be damned if she didn’t enjoy it wholeheartedly. Whether it was delusional or not, she felt like she was the only thing in the entire universe that mattered to him right now and it was marvellous. The war had left her with a lot of demons and forced her to come to terms with the fact that she would never not feel uneasy – but at this exact moment, embraced by his strong arms, she felt safe, completely and utterly safe.

“Do you like this?” the Potion Master suddenly asked, causing her to pull back a little and look up at his face. “Compared to the entrance dance, I mean.” Somehow there was an endearing nervousness in his voice.

“Yeah,” Hermione answered. “It’s lovely.”

And when the corners of his mouth lifted a little at that, her heart silently rejoiced – there wasn’t anything she wanted more than to see him happy. Without thinking, the witch reached out her hand and casually tucked a strand of hair that had become loose and fallen into his face behind his ear, letting her fingers linger on his cheek for just a tad bit too long before pulling back.

The way he was looking at her – no man had ever looked at her like that. His black eyes were locked with hers and he was so close that she could see her own reflection in his dilated pupils. If she hadn’t known better, Hermione would have thought that Snape’s gaze was full of something more, something that normally only filled her wildest dreams; regardless, it made her heart stop. And for some reason, she also suddenly felt out of breath, almost as though she’d just run a half marathon. Was she just imagining it or was his face gradually coming closer to hers? And why did his eyes keep wandering to her lips?

Neither of them realised it, but they had stopped dancing a long time ago.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

The touch of her fingers felt electric. And her round heart-shaped face was close enough to where he could have counted each individual freckle on her cute little button nose if he’d wanted to. Severus shuddered; all he could do was stare into those beautiful honey brown eyes of hers. For probably the first time in his entire life, his overactive mind had become blank. There were no thoughts in his head because all that mattered in that moment was them, him and her, joined in that sweet, sweet embrace. It was like time had slowed down or become completely non-existent, like the world had stopped turning for just them.

His heart was beating so fast and loud that the Slytherin could hear his own pulse in his ears. His look wandered from her eyes down to her mouth and it looked so tempting that he nearly passed out. Everything inside of him screamed no, begged him to just push her away, but the gravity of her full lips was simply inescapable – he subconsciously leaned forward until their faces were only a finger-width away from each other. He could feel her warm breath on his skin, giving him goose bumps all over. He kept telling himself that everything was okay, that nothing had happened yet and that he could pull back at any time as he kept getting closer and closer – and then suddenly their lips met.

“ **ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION RIGHT NOW!** ” screamed the panicked voice inside of his head but it was like Severus was having an out-of-body experience with no control over his own actions. For a long-drawn-out moment, it felt like he’d fallen to the ground from an enormous height and knocked every wisp of air from his lungs upon impact, causing him to struggle to inhale, to exhale, to do anything. But then, it came almost instinctively, his grip around her narrow waist tightened as he brought one hand up to the back of her head, holding it in place as he pressed his mouth against hers even more. Her lips were chapped – probably from all the biting – but they felt heavenly nonetheless. And when she parted them just ever so slightly to let out a silent moan, his light pink tongue darted out to trace them. She tasted like dark chocolate – kind of bitter but oh so sweet at the same time. It nearly drove him insane, it was that good.

Grunting when he felt her arms wrap around his neck, he decided to be bold and bite her bottom lip with his worn teeth, getting high of the sharp breath she drew in response. The arm around her midriff slowly wandered lower, its digits brushing against her buttocks, and her nails dug into his shoulders so hard that he was sure there would be bruises tomorrow; not that he cared. She was getting him drunk without a sip of alcohol and Severus wordlessly begged her to keep kissing him until he forgot about how terrified he was of everything wrong with his life.

Hermione wasn’t his first kiss, no, not even close – but she felt like the first kiss that truly mattered.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

The first thing she noticed was how surprisingly soft his lips were; only after another second or two did she realise that she was, in fact, kissing her teacher, personal tutor and crush.

At first, she froze, not knowing how to react. Should she reciprocate? Push him away? Hex herself into oblivion? But then his rough hand found her neck, tipping her head to create a better angle, and automatically her mind shut down. She didn’t know what is was – perhaps Professor Snape had been slipped a love potion or was under some sort of spell or maybe this was all nothing but a very realistic dream – but Hermione figured that she would deal with whatever consequences there might be later. Because this felt too good to stop.

In dire need of oxygen, the witch opened her lips slightly and was instantly attacked by his tongue. Not having a lot of experience with those kinds of things, it was a weird feeling but definitely not unpleasant and she couldn’t help but pull him closer; hearing him groan and feeling every inch of his tall body pressed tightly against hers aroused her. It was obvious that he wanted her and to say that that was a slight confident boost would have been an understatement.

The piercing pain when he suddenly bit her made her gasp but it quickly turned back into pleasure as soon as she felt his hand on her bum. Overwhelmed with sensations, she clawed at his robes helplessly. But what ultimately caused her to lose all control was when he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth before lightly grinding against her hip. A warm feeling started to spread in her lower belly and desperate for more – even though she wasn’t really sure what that exactly was – she grabbed his chiselled face on both sides and crashed her mouth against his harder.

Hermione felt like she was flying on air. And perhaps the best part of it all was that her brain that normally ran 24/7, 365 days a year, was completely void of any thoughts for once. And it was glorious – at least, it was until the music stopped.

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Reality set in as soon as the last drawn-out note had faded away and it caused Severus to go from pure bliss to absolute horror within a fraction of a second.

His eyes flew open in shock as deafening silence engulfed them. He immediately pushed her away from him, probably a bit too roughly even, before turning around and walking away a few steps. His lips were still mourning the loss of her sweet mouth as the Head of Slytherin buried his face in his shaking hands in a bid to keep himself from screaming out in terror – he had just assaulted Miss Granger! Granted, it had felt so very good and had probably been the most exhilarating experience of his entire life, but it was still completely wrong on so many levels! She was not only his student and apprentice, but also 20 years his junior and barely even an adult! He couldn’t believe how he could have possibly failed to restrain himself like that, how he –

“Oh god …”

Startled, the former Death Eater whirled around. The Head Girl’s mouth was slightly ajar as she just stared at him, pale as a sheet. She looked like a picture of misery with her arms wrapped tightly around her torso like that and her lipstick all smudged. Severus almost couldn’t bear looking her in the face because her expression was just so heartbreaking – she was clearly appalled, but there was also something more there, something he couldn’t pinpoint exactly. 

“Miss Granger, I –“

“ **OH GOD!** ” And before he had time to react or say anything else, the brunette had already spun around and run off into the rainy night.

“Hermione!” shouted Snape as he chased after her, almost tripping over his own two feet. It was so cloudy that he could barely see her figure in the distance. “HERMIONE!” But soon, he lost her in the utter darkness.

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Hermione fled. The heavy rain was ruining her hair and makeup and it was so dark that she could not see where she was running but she didn’t care; all she knew was that she had to get away somehow. She could hear him call out for her from somewhere behind her but she just couldn’t muster up the courage to turn around and face him. A faint whimper escaped her lips as she forced her short legs to move even faster. After a while, his shouting had died down, however, she still didn’t dare to stop and simply kept going. She had never been an athletic person but her mind forced her body to continue, to ignore that piercing pain in her chest, that rubbery feeling in her knees. Away, just away – that was all she could think about. Away from the Potion Master and that shocked, disgusted expression on his face.

Suddenly, something caught onto her left leg. The girl could hear the sound of her heel snapping in half and took another two or three unsteady steps before falling face-first onto the wet ground. And for a while, she just laid there motionlessly as the rain drops falling down onto her lifeless form were drenching her beautiful gown soaking wet. It was so bitter cold but she had turned numb a long time ago. A combination of dirt and grass in her mouth, she could feel something warm – probably blood – drip down from her temple into her eye.

It felt like an eternity had passed before she finally moved, slowly rolling onto her side and pulling her knees to her chest; only then did she erupt into loud heart-wrenching sobs. It was more than normal crying – it was that kind of uncontrolled wailing that only someone robbed of all hope could produce, that kind of full-body sobbing that made breathing so hard to the point where it was physically painful. A mixture of runny mascara, tears and blood all over her face, the witch was slowly rocking back and forth, not caring about the mud dirtying her dress.

Hermione felt pathetic, crying like this in the middle of nowhere, but she just couldn’t help it. Kissing Professor Snape – that was something that she had fantasised about for months. Her happiest dreams had been filled with that image but she would have never thought that it was actually going to happen! It had always just been one of those fun things to think about in private, her dirty little secret. And now that it had become reality, it made her hate herself.

Hate herself because she was now going to lose her apprenticeship, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and possibly even face expulsion.

Hate herself because she hadn’t shown more self-control and stupidly risked getting Professor Snape into major trouble.

Hate herself because she had actually liked it – a lot.

Hate herself because he had looked absolutely horrified afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT FINALLY HAPPENED – THEY KISSED!!!  
> You guys … This was not only the longest chapter I have ever written, but it was also the toughest one! I had actually come up with the plot a really long time ago, however, for some reason putting the story into words proved extremely difficult (writer’s block really is a bitch!). The entire process of writing this was honestly just such a mess and I actually had to write the ending first because it was the only part where I didn’t sit in front of my laptop for hours completely blank on what to do o.o  
> I’m still not sure if I’m really happy with how it turned out but I’m honestly too exhausted to redo it right now after working on it day and night for over two weeks. But I’m also super proud of myself for finishing in time for Valentine’s Day! (I know that the ending was a bit dramatic and not romantic at all but I think we all know that this is not the end of their relationship so just make sure to check out future chapters ;-P)  
> I really hope that this chapter was able to meet everybody’s expectations, I know that a lot of people have started to really get into this story and hopefully I didn’t disappoint anyone >.<  
> I might take a bit of a break after this very exhausting experience to recharge my creative batteries but please stick around, I won’t be gone for too long! I would appreciate it if you could leave me some feedback down below and also bonus points for anyone that recognises where I got my inspiration for Hermione’s dress from! <3


	23. Candid Confessions

Severus didn’t even make it 24 hours before his guilty conscience completely ate him up and brought him to his breaking point. Filled with regret and remorse, he made sure to avoid running into anyone as he sluggishly made his way up from the depths of the dungeons. Not being able to sleep for obvious reasons, he’d been drinking away his sorrows all night and after half a bottle of Ogden’s Old Firewhisky, the black-haired man had decided that the best possible thing he could do right now was to come clean. There was no excuse for his behaviour, of course, but he figured that it would still be better if the old man at least heard it from him first. In his mind, there was no doubt that Miss Granger was already sitting in Minerva’s office at this very moment, with her beautiful pale face all tear-streaked as she recounted her traumatic experience of being attacked by one of her teachers. He felt so truly awful when he thought about her – the poor girl had run away from him in such horror that he was certain that she hated his guts now. And who could blame her? He knew that there was nothing he could do to ever make this up to her. Even on the off chance that Severus wasn’t going to lose his job over this, there was no way that Hermione wouldn’t be pulled from his class and transferred to another tutor. And without her, he didn’t see any reason to remain at Hogwarts. So he would simply confess to everything, resign from his position and leave the castle immediately and not a single soul would know – that was until Slytherin’s new Head of House was going to make his or her inevitable debut at the Quidditch game against Ravenclaw the following morning. But by then, he would already be long gone.

All too fast, the Potion Master arrived in front of the ugly gargoyle guarding the entrance to Dumbledore’s office. His cold, bitter heart was heavy and beating out his chest as he quietly muttered the password – flibbertigibbet – before watching the large stone figure move aside. Stepping on the spiral staircase, he had a thousand thoughts racing through his mind as he was slowly being brought up to the top. He felt so ashamed of what he was about to confess to – while Albus and his antics were nothing but an annoyance to him on most days, Snape was nevertheless always secretly desperate for his mentor’s approval; he shuddered at the thought of how disappointed and disgusted the older wizard would be. As a servant of the Dark Lord, he had committed countless unspeakable acts – pillage, torture, arson and even murder – but yet somehow, kissing one of his own pupils felt like the most immoral thing he’d ever done. Even hours later, he was still mortified by his actions. How could he have let himself lose control like that?! He was just such an idiot when it came to women and love, he’d read all of the signs completely wrong! He was so embarrassed that he even briefly considered asking that the reason for his sudden resignation wouldn’t be disclosed to the student body and his colleagues but he quickly decided that that should be up for Hermione to determine – she was the victim here, after all. If she wanted to publicly shame him, then so be it. He deserved it.

The moving stairs finally came to a gentle halt and the professor’s mouth felt disgustingly dry. He knew the big, heavy wooden door in front of him all too well; he must have walked through it hundreds of times, sometimes for nothing more than a simple staff meeting, other times to give personal account of Voldemort’s newest deranged move. But never before had he been this nervous of entering the circular room. For what felt like an eternity, all he could do was stand there motionlessly, staring right at that damn door as his legs just wouldn’t move. He didn’t want to do it – didn’t want to walk into that office, admit to his biggest failure and lose the respect of the only person who had always believed in him. But did he really have any other choice? No. No, he didn’t. Filled with dread, he took a cautious step forward and was just about to lift up one of his hands to knock when he suddenly heard a joyous “Come in, come in!” resonate from the other side of the door. Snape didn’t even flinch – of course the flamboyant geezer would have already known that he was coming. He always did.

Taking one last deep breath, the former Death Eater stepped into the office. Ignoring all the funny little noises coming from the wide array of weird instruments distributed all across the room, he was grateful to see that the residents of the dozens of portraits hanging on the high walls were still sound asleep. Fawkes was nowhere to be found and even the Sorting Hat seemed to be snoozing peacefully on its shelf. Good – this conversation was already guaranteed to be bad enough without any witnesses.

“Severus! But what a pleasant surprise so early in the morning!” Dumbledore loudly exclaimed from his usual spot behind the desk. He had a big grin on his sunken face and was wearing another one of his outlandish robes, this time it was a fashion nightmare made of icy-blue silk embroidered with shiny blood-red beads. “To what do I owe the honour of this visit?”

Snape had to forcefully suppress the urge to vomit as he reluctantly staggered towards his employer. He didn’t want to do this, no, he really didn’t. “Headmaster.” His voice sounded terribly hoarse. “There is something I need to tell you.”

“Is that so? Well, then go ahead, spit it out!”

“I, I –“ He tried to swallow but his throat was suddenly feeling excruciatingly tight. “I am so, so sorry but …” He faltered. All night, he had thought about how he should bring up such an awkward and sensitive subject and had even mentally prepared a whole speech ahead of time, however, in this exact moment, his mind went completely blank. And so out of necessity, he decided to just make it quick and painless, like ripping off a band-aid. His head hung in shame as he slammed his fists on the table in front of him with a loud bang before letting out a barely audible whisper, “ _I kissed Miss Granger._ ”

“ **FI-NA-LLY!** ”

That was definitely not the reaction that Severus had expected. “Wh- what?” he stammered perplexed, his dark eyes filled to the brim with tears.

“Oh son …” Dumbledore shook his head empathetically which made his long white beard dance like a serpent performing for a snake charmer. With a quick movement of his wrinkly hand, a simple wooden chair appeared next to his claw-footed desk. “You are completely shaken up. Have a seat, please!”

He waited until the younger man had done so while still trembling from head to toe before he continued, “I do apologise for my little outburst just now, but I must confess that this doesn’t really come as a surprise to me.” Severus’ jaw dropped but the headmaster simply lifted one of his long fingers to keep him from interrupting. “Let me explain: You see, I did not bring back Hogwarts’ apprenticeship programme solely for the purpose of giving the extracurriculars a slight brush-up. When making the decision, I specifically had Miss Granger and you in mind.”

“I don’t … think I understand.”

The wizard with the half-moon spectacles sighed. “My boy, the Order enlisted your service as a double agent for two very long decades. Again and again, you bravely put your life on the line for the greater good and now that the war is over, nobody deserves to have a shot at a normal, happy and carefree life more than you. But I know you, Severus. You are quite possibly the smartest man I’ve ever met but at the same time you can sometimes be so dense when it comes to the more emotional parts of life that I feared that you wouldn’t be able to recognise that the key to your happiness had been in front of your eyes all along. And even if you did, you also unfortunately have such a low opinion of yourself – which is, might I add, completely unwarranted – that you probably still wouldn’t take a chance at it as you would mistakenly deem yourself unworthy. So I knew that I had to give you a push in the right direction for your own good, so to speak; that I had to force you into a situation where you couldn’t possibly escape your own luck no matter how hard you tried.”

His brow furrowed deeply, the half-blood had confusion written all over his face – the old man’s words didn’t make any sense. What was he talking about? Why hadn’t he banned him from school grounds yet or at least scolded him for assaulting his apprentice? “What?”

Albus offered him a sympathetic smile. “Come on, be honest with yourself. Didn’t you realise a long time ago that Miss Granger’s probably the only person in the entire universe that could ever match your brains? She shares the same thirst for knowledge and the same passion for academics as you do, Severus, it’s really a miracle that she should exist. I didn’t have a choice but to revive this school tradition – it was the only way to get the two of you to spend more time together alone and finally recognise that you were practically made for each other!”

It took him a few seconds to register what had just been said but then the Dungeon Bat’s eyes instantly grew big in shock. He could not believe his ears! “ **WHAT?!** But she’s a student! It’s forbidden! It’s wrong!”

Dumbledore let out a silent chuckle; he was seemingly oblivious to his staffer’s despair. “Severus, I believe that we can both agree that Miss Granger is not an ordinary student so why should ordinary rules apply to her? She is a war hero, just like you. You both had to go through more than most people could even imagine and that kind of stuff forces one to grow up fast. The regulations dictating that teachers and pupils cannot have a romantic or intimate relationship are in place to protect our children from being taken advantage of by someone in a position of power as most of them are still too immature and impressionable to consent to something like that. What differentiates Miss Granger from her fellow students is that she has spent her teenage years eye to eye with the world’s most evil and ruthless men, fighting against them with her bare hands as they tried to bring victory to the dark side. I’m confident that she could defend herself perfectly well in the unlikely circumstance that you should try anything with bad intentions in mind. Dare I say that she could probably beat you in a duel if she wanted to! Therefore I see no reason why I shouldn’t allow such a union.”

Severus was completely dumbfounded – he had always known that the silver-haired man liked to play puppet theatre with other people’s lives but he couldn’t believe that that shrewd bastard had also been meddling in his love life all along! Suddenly that knowing gazing he had given him while he was dancing with Hermione made so much more sense.

“I had to act fast, of course. Now that we won the war and the Order has again disbanded, you would have no reason to see Miss Granger after her graduation. I simply could not let you miss out on the opportunity of falling for her – don’t you understand?”

“So this … this ball was just another excuse? Another part of your grand plan?”

“Yes and no – I also just wanted to see all the funny pairings dance with each other. I mean, did you see Sybill and Miss Brown? Hilarious!” His laughter was unpleasantly shrill.

“I can’t believe this! Why did you do all of this instead of just telling me?!” Severus was getting increasingly irritated. He’d thought that after retiring from being a double agent, he would finally be a free man but that son of a bitch just kept interfering with his life – and he hadn’t even noticed!

The headmaster’s small eyes were filled with that strange twinkle again. “If I had told you that I thought that you and one of your students were soulmates, would you have just accepted it and thanked me or would you have cursed me out?” Silence. Snape didn’t know how to answer; he knew that the other man was right. “I do apologise for going behind your back but it had to happen like this. I knew that even if you had realised it yourself, you would have never followed your heart because you would much rather follow the rules. But some rules are meant to be broken, Severus. Especially when it comes to love.” There was another short pause. “Even a lone wolf like you deserves to have somebody by their side. She makes you happy – and that’s okay.”

“But Albus … I can’t! It’s not right! She’s 20 years younger than me, for heaven’s sake!”

“You need to remember that she’s most definitely not a helpless little girl anymore and of age in both the wizarding and the Muggle world. I believe the correct term is that she's _legal_.”

“HEADMASTER!”

Dumbledore let out an almost eerie giggle. “I’m just joking, of course! However, you should really stop worrying all the time, it’s not good for you. Just accept things as they come and stop fighting against your own fate! It’s okay if you don’t want to admit it but I know how close the both of you have gotten over the past couple of months.”

He looked at him completely baffled. “You’ve noticed?”

“Of course! The castle has its eyes everywhere, my boy, and it can be quite chatty at times.”

Severus felt drained, both mentally and physically; this whole revelation was just too much. A lone tear escaped the corner of his eye and rolled down his cheek. All he wanted to do right now was to crawl into his bed and sleep for a week or two but there was just one more thing that he had to ask, “But how would you have even known that she would choose me as her tutor to begin with? Hermione is so good at everything she does, she could have gone with anyone!”

“The answer is simple: I didn’t. I just had a feeling that she would."

The Slytherin buried his face in his hands. He didn’t know if he should feel relieved that he wasn’t in trouble or repulsed by the fact that his boss played such a trick on him. All of the sudden, he was longing to finish that half-full bottle of alcohol waiting for him in his quarters.

“Anyways,” the Wizengamot member spoke up. “Miss Granger and you may or may not decide to enter into a relationship and either way it really is none of my business but I must of course still ask you not to go public with it should you choose the former, at least not yet. While I have complete trust in both of you and would support such a union wholeheartedly, others might not be so understanding and could try to ostracise you. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone questioning Miss Granger’s Potions grades, now would we?”

“I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about that,” replied the big-nosed man grimly, his black eyes still glued to the floor. “Hermione ran away from me in disgust. She obviously wants nothing to do with me anymore.”

“Oh Severus, I wouldn’t place my bets on that! I have the feeling that this is all just a big misunderstanding that will be resolved soon.” He winked at him. “Now, would you like a piece of sherbet lemon?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m baaaaaaaaack! Thank you so much for 8,500 views <3


	24. Ginny Weasley in: An Agony Aunt’s Nightmare

“Hermione, are you really sure that everything’s alright?” The Boy Who Lived asked in a troubled tone. “You’ve been behaving quite strange lately. I mean, we have a Transfiguration exam next week and you haven’t yet reminded us to study for it even once!”

The Muggle-born gave him a tired smile. Oh, bless him – Harry was still so concerned about her even though his late mother’s birthday was coming up in only a few days; Hermione knew how depressed he usually was during this time of year. “Don’t worry, I’ve just been a little sick,” she lied through her teeth. “I must have caught something at the ball.” After all, there was no way that she could tell him that the real reason why she hadn’t been acting like herself was because she had kissed her crush – who just so happened to be the most hated teacher in all of Hogwarts – and it had ended disastrously.

“So is that why you didn’t go to Potions on Monday? Ernie told me about it,” interjected Ron as he lazily packed up his school supplies.

“Um …” _I didn’t go because even just the thought of seeing him makes me want to jump off the Astronomy Tower!_ “Yeeeah – you know, whenever I’m not feeling too well, all of those potion fumes tend to give me terrible headaches so …”

“Oh, I know what you’re talking about,” Neville said, nodding his large head in agreement. “I used to get an awfully sick feeling in my stomach every single time I walked into that classroom!”

Ginny huffed. “Like that was due to the potion fumes …”

“I guess being Snape’s apprentice comes with some benefits, after all,” declared her brother. “It seems like you didn’t even lose any house points for skipping class. I think if anyone else had dared to do that, that tosser would have given them detention until Easter at least!”

Hermione let out a nervous laugh in response and couldn’t help but feel relieved when the three boys left for bed only a few minutes later; it was truly exhausting having to pretend that everything was fine in front of her friends. Normally, she wouldn’t even be up this late but these days she’d been having trouble sleeping. Every time she closed her eyes, she would relive that perfect moment of when their lips had touched, loving every second of it, only to wake up and realise that it had all just been a dream. And then she would lie there sobbing for hours, knowing that it would never happen again and that he had hated it, hated her.

As soon as the door to the boys’ dormitory audibly closed shut, Ginny turned to her with her brows furrowed deeply – they were now the only two people left in the common room. “Okay, real talk – what’s going on?”

The brunette gulped. “Wh- what do you mean?” she said nervously.

“Don’t even try to play dumb with me, you know _exactly_ what I mean! You’ve been acting weird ever since the ball and it’s definitely not like you to just skip class – headaches my arse, you wouldn’t even miss a lesson if you were on the brink of death! So what happened? Was Snape mean to you or something?”

Hermione wanted to lie to her, wanted to act like everything was fine, but she simply couldn’t keep up this charade any longer. Before she could stop herself, she erupted into tears. “Oh god … I can’t tell you, Ginny, I just can’t!”

“Why not?” The adolescent looked at her with worry clearly visible in her bright brown eyes. “What’s going on with you? Talk to me, please!”

“I really can’t! You’d hate me if you knew!”

“Now, come on, you know that’s not true! How could I ever hate you when you were there for me when I had to make the hardest decision of my entire life and you didn’t judge me? You can share anything with me!”

The muscles of her chin were twitching uncontrollably as more and more tears streamed down her face. “B- but then you must promise me not to tell anyone! Nobody can ever know about this! No one!”

Ginny grabbed her hand and gave it a good squeeze. “But of course!”

It took Hermione a few moments to gather herself enough to be able to say it out loud – she didn’t want to do it, of course, but at the same time she knew that this was the type of secret that would eat her up alive if she didn’t get it off of her chest soon. “At the ball, I … Professor Snape and I, we …” Her heart was beating so rapidly that it almost made her feel dizzy. With her eyes closed, she finally whispered, “ _We kissed._ ”

She could hear the other girl draw a sharp breath and braced herself for the inevitable outburst that was sure to follow – but it never came. After a long drawn-out silence, she slowly lifted her head and looked up in confusion; her friend’s expression was unreadable and her complexion was weirdly blotchy and red. “Hermione,” said Ginny in a strangely controlled voice that was almost too low to be heard. “I want you to be honest with me … Did he force himself onto you?”

Her jaw hit the floor. “What?! NO!”

“Are you sure?”

“Wh- of course I’m sure! Professor Snape would never do such a thing!”

“Well, just one minute ago, I also thought that he would never stoop as low as to snog one of his own bloody students but yet here we are! You need to remember that he’s not a good man, Hermione, no matter your crush on him!” fumed the youngest Weasley.

“Yes, he is, Ginny!” the Head Girl spat back appalled. “He is … in his own way.”

“If he’s such a nice guy and didn’t do anything wrong, why else would you be so distressed then?”

“Are you serious?!” Hermione practically exploded out of her seat as she stared at the other female as though she had just grown a second head. “I _kissed_ one of my own professors! I- I must have broken at least half a dozen of school rules! What if someone were to find out? I could get kicked out and not be allowed to sit my N.E.W.T.s and Professor Snape could get fired and it would all be my fault! This has the potential of ruining both of our lives – of fucking course I would be distressed!”

“No.”

“Wh- what?” She asked perplexed, the wind taken out of her sails in an instant.

“No,” the redhead repeated with a sceptical look on her face. “I would buy this explanation every other day but not tonight. There has to be more to this, I just know it. So what are you actually upset about?”

“I –“ The words got stuck in her throat. What she even doing trying to fool the one person that knew her better than herself? Defeated, Hermione let herself slump back into her chair as more tears rolled down her bright red cheeks which were now burning from embarrassment. “Gin, he …” She buried her round face in her hands. “He hated it. He pushed me away from him and looked … absolutely horrified.”

The Gryffindor let out a heart-wrenching sob. “Like, what am I supposed to do now? How am I ever going to look him in the eyes again? I should have known better than to fall in love with my tutor and now I managed to fuck up whatever resemblance of a friendship we had to begin with!”

For a moment, the room remained silent. “In love?” the younger girl then asked softly. “Do you really mean that? I thought you only fancied him.”

Hermione’s heart skipped a beat – did she really mean that? “Yes.” The word had left her lips before she could even properly think about the question. “Yes, I think I … I think I love him. Like, really, truly love him. I don’t know how or why but … I’ve never felt this way towards anyone else before.”

She could hear Ginny draw another sharp breath. “Okay, well, that changes things,” the sixth-year eventually murmured. “Loving someone is a hell of lot different than simply having a crush on them, it doesn’t just go away after a while. So I guess we have to try and fix this now.”

The Potions apprentice grimaced. “How could a disaster like this be fixed?”

“Maybe the situation isn’t as dire as you think. Like, do you really believe that Sna- Professor Snape wouldn’t have already reported you to Dumbledore or at least McGonagall and deducted hundreds of house points if you smooched him against his will? He didn’t even punish you for not going to class. So I don’t believe for a second that he hated it as much as you said he did,” Ginny explained. “I mean, who even initiated the kiss? You or him?”

“Um …” Hermione’s eyes grew big – she hadn’t even thought about that! “I think he did.”

“See? As much as I don’t want to admit that the Dungeon Bat might have real human feelings, I think he likes you just as much as you like him. Which would also explain his horrified reaction – he probably got carried away and then suddenly realised that you were still his student, after all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A shorter chapter just in time for 9,000 views!  
> Unfortunately, I do have some bad news: In addition to my already way too stressful everyday life, we have guests coming on Friday who will stay for approximately two weeks so I probably won’t be able to upload until the mid or end of April (the next chapter is super important, so I don’t really want to rush it either). I hope you guys understand :-(  
> Did you enjoy this chapter? I would love it if you could leave me some feedback down below! <3


	25. Ruin Me

On Sunday, Severus didn’t leave his quarters at all; he spent the day barricaded in his dimly lit bedroom much like he had done just three and a half months prior after they’d shared that blasted night in his office. He didn’t even have the strength to go to today’s Quidditch game. Plagued by migraines and insomnia, he was dreading what the upcoming week would bring – he knew that it was only a matter of days at best before he would run into his apprentice. The one thing that was driving him insane about that, however, was that he had no idea how she would react. Would she burst into tears? Or would she maybe even throw a nasty curse his way? It was that uncertainty of not knowing what to expect that made him feel sick to his stomach. His mind kept replaying the conversation he’d had with Dumbledore – but as much as he wanted to believe the old man’s words, he was convinced that there really was no way that this was just a mere misunderstanding and that Hermione liked him, too. In a desperate attempt to escape his own thoughts, he downed one third of a second bottle of Firewhisky and two whole phials of Sleeping Draught before finally slipping off into sweet, sweet unconsciousness.

The next morning, the dark wizard woke up a lot later than usual but he really didn’t mind; he hadn’t been planning on going to breakfast anyways. In a bid to put off the inevitable, he showered and got dressed so excruciatingly slow that he ended up being almost five minutes late for his first lesson of the day. He could feel the curious looks that were given to him by his young students as he strutted into the classroom, skilfully ignoring their hushed whisper. They were undoubtedly asking themselves what the hell had gotten into their Potions professor – after all, it was a well-known fact that Severus Snape was _never_ late. Really not feeling like dealing with those brats more than he absolutely needed to, he decided to throw the original lesson plan out the window and simply instructed them to write a comprehensive essay on the uses of the common snowdrop in memory potions. While he normally took great pleasure in hearing the irritated groans of pupils faced with a boring assignment, he barely even noticed their pathetic outcries right now – his mind was too preoccupied with a certain know-it-all and whether or not she would show up for class today. And an hour later, as more and more seventh-years filled into the cramped dungeon room, Severus could feel his throat slowly start to close up until it got to the point where he was barely even able to breathe. Would she show up? And if so, how was he supposed to act? Should he ask her to stay after class so that they could talk it out? He was so unbelievably nervous that he felt like his heart was about to burst until – nothing. The heavy wooden door slammed shut after the last student entered and then everything was already over. No Miss Granger. He’d expected that she wouldn’t come, of course, but the tension that had been building up all morning still made him want to go drown himself in the Black Lake. Mentally drained, he gave his class some random potion to brew that was so easy that there was no possible way that they could fuck it up before disappearing into his office, longing for a sip – or two or three – of the small metal flask filled with Dragon Barrel Brandy he always kept in there – if he wasn’t careful, he would soon turn into an alcoholic. “Just like father,” he thought, totally disgusted with himself.

When the Gryffindor also didn’t show up for their apprenticeship lesson the following day, Snape wasn’t surprised. In fact, he was rather glad as just the thought of being completely alone with her made him break out into a cold sweat. He had still prepared a task for her – brewing another batch of Blood-Replenishing Potion for the Hospital Wing – but he was more than happy to do that by himself. When he later decided to attend dinner, however, he wasn’t able to make her out anywhere in the Great Hall and it was then that he was starting to worry a bit. Was she okay? He was almost tempted to ask his colleagues if she had at least been attending their classes but ultimately decided that it wouldn’t do any good to arouse anyone’s attention; or else they might just start to wonder why he didn’t know the whereabouts of his own apprentice. After all, the headmaster’s knowing smirks were already enough to deal with.

Wednesday too passed by without a trace of Hermione anywhere and so the half-blood was admittingly caught a bit off-guard when the teenager suddenly showed up for the double period of Potions Thursday morning. As he entered the classroom that day, Severus froze for a split second when he discovered her sitting in her normal spot in the front. Albeit her face appeared almost sickly pale, she looked the same as always as she had her nose buried in one of the many books distributed all over the narrow desk in front of her. She didn’t acknowledge him at all and also didn’t bother looking up a few minutes later when he started telling the class about the specific magical concoction they would be studying that day. Not really knowing what to make of that behaviour, the Potion Master refrained from doing his usual rounds inspecting the students’ work during the lesson in order to avoid getting too close and maybe even having to talk to her. Instead, he spent the time stealthily observing his love interest. As usual, she was working very efficiently and was able to produce a flawless potion in no time, however, he did notice that her hands seemed to shake a little more than what would be considered normal. Was she really that nervous? But how could she be, considering that she barely even paid him any mind? Time went by disgustingly slow but as soon as the bell rang two hours later, the brunette immediately jumped up and rushed out of the room, leaving behind nothing but a perfectly clean workstation and a small phial filled with a shimmering lilac liquid. On the one hand, the Potion Master was relieved. There had been no tears, no accusations, not even any nasty looks. But for some reason, he also couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He didn’t really know what he had expected, it just felt like there was something missing, something that he maybe should have said or done. And he still felt that way later that afternoon when the Head Girl didn’t show up for yet another one of their private lessons. So as he was sitting in his office all alone, he picked up the bottle that she’d handed in earlier. He could tell by simply looking at it that the potion inside was immaculate. Of course – what else would one expect from Hermione Granger?

The rest of the week went by without accident. Snape didn’t see his apprentice at all aside from a handful of times in the Great Hall; apparently, she had finally decided to consume her meals in company again. Which he guessed was good. At least that way he could see and make sure that she was still alive. When Monday rolled around, the teacher found himself sitting at his desk, watching on as the second-year Slytherins and Gryffindors were streaming out of his classroom as he yet again wondered whether or not Miss Granger would attend class today – though that question was quickly answered when the witch stepped into the room just a few minutes later. Just like last time, she didn’t make any eye contact as she quietly worked on throwing together different ingredients inside her big cauldron. As he studied her every move, Severus questioned if he should perhaps approach her at the end of the lesson. He really didn’t want to, of course, but at the same time he thought that this awkward tiptoeing was starting to get a bit ridiculous. Mind you, there were still almost five months left until the end of term so there really was no way that they could avoid each other in the long run, especially if they were supposed to properly go about this stupid apprenticeship. But just as he finally took the decision to speak to her, the deafeningly loud sound of the school bell resonated from the dungeon walls and before the dark-haired man was even able to open his mouth, she had already left – but not before flashing him a shy smile in passing.

All in all, it took Hermione exactly eleven days before she at long last decided to attend one of their apprenticeship lessons again. It was particularly cold on that Tuesday morning in early February and the Potion Master was just rifling through some papers when the creaking classroom door suddenly swung open without warning. Alarmed, he looked up and there she was, standing on his doorstep looking as breath-taking as ever.

Letting her long wavy hair fall loosely down her back, she was carrying a bulky Muggle Studies book in her arms as she tentatively stepped into the room. For a long drawn-out moment, neither one of them dared to speak as they both just stared at one another with wide eyes, like two hungry wolves circling each other. Was this really it? Was this weird dancing around they had been doing for nearly two weeks truly about to come to an end?

After what seemed like an eternity, the student eventually mumbled a quiet, “Good morning.”

Oh, it’d been so long since he had heard that silky voice of hers! The wizard’s heart was beating out of his chest as he took in her body language. Well, she wasn’t crying yet, so that was a good sign, right? Maybe she didn’t absolutely loathe him after all? Nervously, he pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Good morning, Miss Granger.”

Her full eyebrows shot up seemingly in surprise, but why he did not know – and there also appeared to be something else there that he couldn’t define exactly. Was she … sad all of the sudden? Disappointed? More than confused, he cleared his throat. “So, um … I thought that we could perhaps use today’s lesson to dust off and organise all of these jars.” He used a quick hand gesture to vaguely point towards the dozens upon dozens of glass containers filled with pickled animals and other oddities that were lining the dark room’s walls. “It’s tedious work but I am afraid that it still needs to get done. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to it in months.”

She eyeballed him critically for a second before giving a wordless nod in response and for a while thereafter, they worked in silence – Severus clearing the long wooden shelves one after another before giving each a good clean and his apprentice carefully polishing the tall crystalline flasks. But just when he was starting to think that this one-on-one encounter actually wasn’t that bad and allowed himself to relax a little, the adolescent suddenly spoke up.

“So are we just not going to talk about what happened?”

The Head of Slytherin was so startled that he unintentionally let go of the jar he was currently holding, causing it to fall onto the hard stone floor and create a gigantic mess made of tiny razor-sharp bits of broken glass mixed with some sort of sticky dark green liquid. Cursing under his breath, he pulled out his wand and used a nonverbal Vanishing Spell to remove the disgusting puddle from the ground and his leather shoes before reluctantly turning towards her. A dirty cleaning cloth still in her hands, the brunette’s cheeks were slightly flushed from embarrassment but she nevertheless stared at him with such focus that it almost made him flinch. “Miss Granger, I am so sorry –“

“Why do you keep calling me that?” she brazenly interrupted him with a quivering voice. “You haven’t done so in months! Do you really think that now would be the best time to go back to using formalities after we have already kissed each other?”

Snape gulped. While he wasn’t used to students talking back to him in general, it was especially weird for something like that to come from the Gryffindor Princess – even though he had to admit that these were special circumstances, of course. “It was a mistake, I –“

She threw the rag she was holding onto the table forcefully. “A mistake – is that really all I am to you? Am I truly such a fool that I have completely misinterpreted the connection we’ve built over these past few months? Tell me, have I been too oblivious to the bitter truth of you actually hating me?”

“Of course, I do not hate you!” he answered, a deep frown on his long face.

“THEN WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!” Taken aback, Severus had to blink several times – he couldn’t believe the way she was speaking to him! Was this really goody-goody Hermione Granger or just a very convincing imposter? “You can’t just kiss people and then toss them to the side like a piece of trash, you know?! I always knew that you were cruel, but I never thought you were cruel enough to get someone’s hopes up just to then crush them like you crush a tiny defenceless beetle to death!”

To say that the professor was confused would have been an understatement. “What are you even saying?”

“I’m saying that I liked it, okay?! I liked kissing you!” she shouted at him with watery eyes. “For years, I tried to hate you, just like everybody else, I really did, but I never ever could! Instead, I’ve always admired you, always strived for your approval! And then you suddenly just go ahead and sweep me off my feet and make me fucking fall for you! What am I supposed to do now, huh? How am I supposed to feel when the guy I like finally kisses me and then talks about a big mistake? Enlighten me, please!”

“Wh- what?” His jaw just about hit the floor – did she really just say that she liked him, too? “But you ran away from me!”

Finally, her brown eyes overflowed and a single tear travelled down her right cheek all the way to her exposed neck. “But only because you looked so absolutely appalled …”

The Dungeon Bat started to laugh, he simply couldn’t help it. It wasn’t that kind of fun-filled laughter that came in response to a good joke, no, rather it was the laughter that escaped you involuntarily whenever you’re faced with a situation so ridiculous. They’d both been wanting each other all along! How absurd was the thought that they’d been driving themselves completely insane without realising that the other one’s longing had been just as strong all along! “And here I was thinking that you hated me!” he exclaimed dumbfounded.

The 18-year-old looked completely baffled. “But how could I ever hate you? You’re just like me! We match so well and if anything, I regret that I hadn’t come to this conclusion any sooner.”

Severus was absolutely ecstatic – she liked him, too! _She liked him!_ This newfound excitement was unfortunately short-lived, however, when he abruptly remembered that she was still one of his pupils and that this was still utterly wrong. He had to fight the sudden urge to bash his head against the wall until his brain was nothing more than a mushy mess – he knew that he should have never let their relationship get this close, now this poor girl even believed that she was in love with him! “Miss Granger, maybe … maybe we should just cut today’s lesson short.”

“What? Why?!”

His gaze was full of something that he showed so seldomly – vulnerability. “Because this is highly inappropriate. Our personal feelings do not change the fact you are my student. I have already let my despicable desires get the better of me once, I won’t risk it again.”

“Please, you –“

“I think that you should go now,” he interrupted her coldly. It was always easiest to act against his emotions if he simply pretended that they’d never existed in the first place.

“B- but I’m not even asking to be your wife or for you to spend the rest of your life with me. I just want you to give us a chance!”

He unsuccessfully tried to swallow that sudden lump in his throat before looking at her with great sadness in his eyes. “I’m not some sort of heroic knight on a white horse, Hermione. I have done things in my life too horrendous and despicable to even be said out loud – I would ruin you if you were mine.”

She didn’t even miss a beat. “Ruin me then.”

“What?”

“I said ruin me,” she repeated calmly. “There is so little left of me to be ruined anyways. Do you know why? Do you know what has already ruined me beyond repair? Growing up in the Muggle world as a geeky overachiever with bushy hair and ugly teeth that no one wanted to be friends with because they thought that I was weird for enjoying libraries and studying so much has ruined me. Suddenly finding out at age eleven that it was my birthright to be a part of this amazing hidden world and believing with all my heart that I had finally found a home, a place where I wouldn’t be judged for being who I am, only to realise that even here I would always be a bloody misfit has ruined me. Being reduced to the impurity of my blood over and over again by the sons and daughters of the very men that were obsessed with having my best friend dead and seeing my kind be eradicated has ruined me. Finding myself in the middle of a war when I was only just a child and having to see the people that I loved be killed off one after another has _fucking_ ruined me.”

She raised her chin almost defiantly. “And all of that shit happened against my will; I had to endure it whether I liked it or not. But now … now I’m actually in control for the very first time. No war having to be fought, no friends having to be kept alive. **I** get to choose what will happen, what I want to do with my life.” The witch bit the corner of her bottom lip. “And I want this. I want this to ruin me, I _will_ let this ruin me – if it only means that I can be with you.”

It sounded so tempting. Severus wanted nothing more than to believe her, to believe that this all could work out somehow and that they could actually have a future together. But her little speech only made him more determined to push her away. It was for her own good – she’d already had to endure so much in her short life, how could he possibly justify burdening her with his broken self? “Trust me,” he pleaded. “You don’t actually want me. You have no idea what you’re really asking for here!”

Hermione threw her hands up angrily. “How come everyone always tells me that I’m so mature for my age, so smart and grown-up, but when it comes to decisions like this that aren’t a matter of life or death I’m suddenly again treated like a 5-year-old who has no idea about the real world?! I mean, for god’s sake, I fucking killed someone! That’s the kind of stuff that will haunt me in my dreams for the rest of my life, not other people’s opinion on who I’m going out with!”

“What?” he asked perplexed. “What do you mean you killed someone?”

The female opened her mouth to answer but not a sound came out. She slowly closed it again as her gaze wandered to the floor. “Dolohov,” she ultimately said, her voice but merely a whisper. “I stunned him during their attack last year. I … I hadn’t realised how close he was standing to the edge of that bridge before I used the body bind on him.” She grimaced. “They never found a body but … there’s no way he survived that fall without being able to use magic to save himself.”

“Oh.” Snape had been wondering where the dark wizard had disappeared to for a long time but it was only now that he realised that he had in fact never seen him again after the Death Eaters’ attempt of taking over the school, one month before Voldemort’s ultimate defeat. First the torture incident, now this – he was really starting to question what else the headmaster might be keeping from him. He sighed. “Hermione, you’re such a beautiful and brilliant girl, I truly feel honoured that you would choose me. But you can have anyone – a man your age, a man with no problems, someone who –“

“BUT I DON’T WANT THAT! I WANT YOU! FOR ONCE LET ME DECIDE ON MY OWN, I BEG YOU!” Big, fat tears started streaming down her face one after another until the young woman was full-on sobbing. “I made smart choices all my life, I made the choices that were expected of me! For once, let me be irresponsible! Let me follow my heart!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” The Potion Master hurried to her side and grabbed her round face with his dry, cracked hands, kissing the salty teardrops away one by one. “Now don’t cry! I’m not worth your tears, Hermione, I will never be worth your tears! You mean more to me than you could probably ever comprehend but as much as I want this – and trust me, I really, truly want this – we cannot through with it. What if someone found out, what if we both got banned from Hogwarts? Being with a former follower of the Dark Lord would shun you for life and while you might not care about that right now, I could never forgive myself for taking your youth, your innocence away from you. I’m sorry.” And with that, he let go of her and turned around to leave.

“Severus.” Stunned, he stopped dead in his tracks – she had never addressed him using his first name before! It sounded so melodic coming from her darling mouth, almost like a term of endearment. “Can you at least do one last thing for me before you go? Just answer me this one question, please. And if afterwards you still want me to leave you alone, I will.”

His mind was screaming at him to flee, urging him to run away and never look back. But how could he possibly deny her this simple request? Taking a deep breath, the Slytherin turned around. The way she was standing there was threatening to make his chest explode; she looked so utterly miserable, just like she had done after their kiss.

“Do you really think that we could go back?” the Muggle-born asked softly, her big round eyes focused on him so intently that it seemed as though she was staring directly into his soul. “Back to just being teacher and student, tutor and apprentice – without it being painfully awkward?”

“I –“ He knew that she was right. There was no denying it – they both were in far too deep to turn back now. He didn’t even want to imagine the horrors of having to forcefully suppress their feelings for each other for the rest of the school year. And so while he wanted to lie to her, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. “I don’t know.”

The young woman let out an agonized titter. “You know … I don’t think that there is any way that I could ever give up being this close to you. Working with you, reading with you, talking with you – that’s the only time I’m truly happy.” She took two steps towards him. “And if the only way that we can keep doing that is to be together, then so be it. If I will regret this down the line, then so be it. Because this is what I need right now.”

She reached out her hand to stroke his cheek but he stopped her by grabbing her by the wrist. He wanted nothing more than to stop fighting it, he was truly so tired of fighting it, but if he was really about to throw all of his morals overboard, he at least needed to be sure that she knew exactly what she was getting herself into first. “I’m a broken man, Hermione. I come with so, so much baggage and issues and then some. And if we really go through with this, then I will **never** be able to leave you. My heart will be yours forever. Are you willing to deal with that? _Can_ you deal with that?”

“Yes,” she breathed – and that was all he needed. Without a second thought, Severus rushed forward and pulled her into a tight embrace. Burying his lined face in her honey brown curls and revelling in the clean scent of her perfume, he forced his mind to shut up for now. He knew that this was probably the wrong decision, of course, that there was no way that they wouldn’t come to regret this sooner or later. But in this exact moment, with his little witch safely hidden in his arms, he couldn’t help but feel relief wash over him – they were okay.

They were okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are so close to 10k views AHHHHH how crazy is that?? <3  
> Our guest decided last minute not to show up, so I was able to finish this chapter a bit earlier than expected. I hope that you enjoyed! I’m not going to lie, it did give me some troubles, but I think that I’m ultimately quite happy with how it turned out. :-)


	26. Awkward Aftermath

Hermione’s mouth felt almost disgustingly dry as she slowly made her way down the narrow stairs leading to the underground dungeons. It was a bitter cold winter morning but she nevertheless felt so awfully hot that the fitted white blouse she was wearing underneath her grey jumper was practically glued onto the skin of her back. The closer and closer she got to that gloomy classroom she knew all too well, the harder her heart was pounding against her ribcage.

_His strong arms were wrapped around her torso so tightly that she could barely even breathe and her mind was so overstimulated by the countless emotions it was trying to experience all at once that she really couldn’t feel anything but paralysing numbness at first._

It had been two whole days since she’d last seen the Potion Master. She still didn’t know what had gotten into her, still couldn’t believe the way she had acted and spoken to him like he was a complete idiot and not her teacher. But after her conversation with Ginny, she had begun to desperately cling to the hope that maybe, just maybe, he did really like her, too; that maybe, just maybe, they could really have something. And so when he had then started to talk about how their kiss had been nothing but a grave misstep on his part, she’d simply lost it. The young woman had never felt more upset in her entire life, however, in retrospect, she couldn’t help but feel a bit bad about her behaviour. But then again, she didn’t – after all, it had somehow worked, right?

_When she finally broke, she certainly didn’t do so quietly. Violent sobs of pure relief started to ripple through her body, she simply couldn’t help it, and he just held her. He held her for what felt like an eternity. Gently rocking back and forth, he soothingly whispered sweet nothings into her ears as his fingers played with her curly hair._

Before long, she arrived at the Potions classroom. As she sat down in her usual spot in the front, she wiped the sweaty palms of her hands on the rough fabric of her skirt. She didn’t know why she was so nervous. They were okay, weren’t they?

_Without warning, the protective silence bubble around them was suddenly shattered by the school bell, making both of them jump. Within a matter of mere seconds, footsteps and loud chatter could be heard coming from the corridor outside. They made eye contact and by the looks on each other’s faces, it was clear that they both knew that it wouldn’t be long before the first students would start to pour into the room._

_“You need to leave!” he urged croakingly, pushing her towards the exit._

_“But –“_

_“Not now, please!” he pleaded, his eyes wide open in shock. “Just go!”_

_She was completely taken aback by his frightened expression. Never in the almost seven years that she had known this man – a man who had spent two decades witnessing the absolute worst humanity had to offer under constant threats to his own life – had she ever seen him look scared before._

_Until now._

_And so after another short moment of hesitation, she hurriedly turned around and bolted out the backdoor leading to his office._

When he finally entered the room, Hermione immediately tensed up. He looked the same as always, whirling robes and all, but she nevertheless almost couldn’t bare to look at him – her nerves were just that bad.

The black-haired man on the other hand didn’t seem bothered by her at all, in fact, he didn’t even shoot a single glance in her direction. “Today, you will be brewing the Invisibility Potion using the instructions that can be found on page 178 of your books,” he said in that deliciously low voice of his, not even waiting for the teenagers to quiet down. “As always, additional directions can be found on the board. You may start.” And then he turned around and sat down at his desk.

As she went to the supply closet to gather all of the needed ingredients, the Muggle-born couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. She didn’t really know what she had expected – it obviously wasn’t like he could just smooch her in front of the entire class – but he hadn’t acknowledged her at all and that made her feel incredibly insecure. “Maybe he just also feels a bit nervous …” she tried telling herself.

Back at her work station, she started to set up her cauldron. She felt a bit silly for what she thought next, however, for only a split second, she was afraid that this had all been nothing but a dream, that he didn’t really like her back and that they had maybe never even kissed, that it was all just in her head. But slipping her right hand into the pocket of her skirt, she was quickly able to feel the rough edges of the tiny piece of paper he’d sent to her the previous night and so she knew that she wasn’t imagining any of this. Her head still somewhat filled with anxiousness and self-doubt, she started brewing.

_The following day, she tried to go see him but could not find him anywhere – he wasn’t in his classroom, his office or even his quarters and he also didn’t attend a single meal in the Great Hall. By asking around, she soon found out that all of his classes had been cancelled for the day. Slowly but surely, panic started to arise inside of her._

_By the time it was midnight a few hours later, Hermione felt terribly tired, however, she still couldn’t fall asleep. Her mind just kept thinking of one horrible scenario after another: Had she not left fast enough, causing a student to see her and report them? Had he changed his mind about their relationship and simply left without saying another word? Or maybe all of this wasn’t even about her and one of the few Death Eaters still left out there on the loose had decided to take revenge on the traitor?_

_But just when she felt as though she was going to go completely insane with worry, a small school owl came flying into her suite through a window that she’d accidentally left opened, carrying nothing but a very short message:_

_Is me being out on Hogwarts business for just one day really such a great cause for concern?_

_A tingling feeling slowly spread through her chest. It was really such a simple note, just one sentence, but even so her heart felt incredibly happy knowing that he cared enough to know that she would have been concerned. Reassured, she laid back down on her bed and it didn’t take long before she was fast asleep, his letter still clenched in her hand._

About thirty minutes into the lesson, she could see him stand up out of the corners of her eyes but she pretended not to notice. As she continued to concentrate on her potion, he slowly went around the room, checking the students’ progress and criticising their brewing.

Always the perfectionist, Hermione was working so diligently that she soon forgot about him making his rounds and so when his large hand then suddenly found its way onto the small of her back, the Head Girl had to quite literally bite her tongue to keep herself from yelping in surprise. Unbeknownst to her, her jumper and blouse had both ridden up, exposing some of her skin to his touch. The feeling of his rough fingers brushing against her was electric, giving her goose bumps all over.

Concerned, her eyes darted across the room but everyone else was so focused on their own potions that they didn’t seem to notice how close their teacher had gotten to their classmate. She internally thanked the gods that only those students who were actually interested in Potions were still taking the subject in year seven – because there was no way that there wouldn't have been some wandering eyes from a bored pupil or two in any pre-O.W.L. grade.

The wizard slowly leaned forward until his chest was touching her shoulder, making her breathing hitch. His cheek was almost touching hers as he leisurely inspected the contents of her rusted cauldron. “Perfect,” he whispered, quiet enough so that only she could hear it. “As always.”

And with that he pulled back and walked off, leaving behind nothing but a flustered Miss Granger as well as a burning sensation where his hand had been touching her.

***********************************************************************************************************************************************

When she entered the Slytherin’s office about three hours later, she found him sitting at his large wooden desk, with several stacks of documents surrounding him from all sides. At first, he didn’t even notice her. His long black robes draped over the back of his leather chair, he was wearing nothing but a snow-white dress shirt as he completely concentrated on writing whatever on the paper in front of him.

After observing him quietly for a few seconds, the young woman eventually took another step into the room and it was only then that he sensed her presence. Lifting his head, he looked at her with a strangely unreadable face. “Hello.”

“Hi,” Hermione answered softly, painfully aware of her burning red cheeks. “How are you today?”

“I’m fine,” he said, a strange twinkling in his dark eyes. “What about you?”

“Good … good.”

For a while, there was an uncomfortable silence. “Well,” Snape then cleared his voice. “I’m just grading some essays from the sixth-years at the moment. Would you maybe like to help me with that?”

“Okay.” And so she sat down, pulled up one of the scrolls and started working. But only a few minutes later, as they were both already scribbling away, he suddenly spoke up again.

“And later, would you maybe like to join me for supper in my rooms?” he asked calmly, his eyes never leaving the parchment in front of him.

Her brows slightly raised in surprise, a faint smile appeared on her heart-shaped face. “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, first of all: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, **THANK YOU** SO SO MUCH FOR 10,000 VIEWS!!!!  <3 <3 <3  
> It truly makes my heart so unbelievably happy that people seem to enjoy my writing; I really am so grateful for every single view, every single kudo, every single bookmark and every single comment!  
> However, today isn’t just good news unfortunately. I have a very important exam coming up in only a few weeks and it’s honestly freaking me out lol since it’s pretty much the deciding factor on whether or not I will someday be able to pursue my dream career. Since it’s kind of a big deal, I have been working my ass off for it but as the date comes closer and closer, the pressure is obviously just getting worse. It just feels like there is so much left that I still need to do and study for and I barely even have time to sleep because of it. What I am ultimately trying to say is that I think I will need to put this story on hold for a while until this whole ordeal is over. The exam is in two months’ time and while I will certainly try to find some time to write (I mean, it would probably do me some good to take a break every once in a while anyways! xD), I cannot and do not want to promise anything. I am very, very sorry for making you guys wait yet again but I hope that you can all understand and that you will stick around until I can update! But what I will promise is that I will definitely come back to our little love story here after the exam is over and then work on it until it is one day completely finished! Especially because I have now finally decided how I want it to end ;-)  
> P.S. In case that you don’t want to wait too long to read more of my work: I recently published a one-shot with the title “The Dungeon Bat and the Grim Reaper – A Conversation” which you should be able to find it by simply clicking on my profile. It’s another HG/SS story, however, it’s a bit more angstier and darker than anything I’ve ever written before because I just wanted to try out something new. If you think that that’s maybe something that you would be interested in then it would really mean the world to me if you could check it out and give me some feedback on it! :-)  
> Love you guys! <3


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